Reform UK leader Nigel Farage returns to North Northants to meet his new executive and councillors

Greeted at the door of Corby Cube, Mr Farage was warmly welcomed by North Northants Council leader Martin Griffiths, who gifted him a hamper of locally-produced goodies including a jar of Jam Queen preserve, some Jeyes of Earls Barton chutney and a bottle of Fleur Fields wine produced in Brixworth.

Both men grinning from ear to ear went into a series of meet and greets to discuss tactics with the new incumbents of the state-of-the-art iconic offices.

Waiting their turn for their time with their party leader, members of the executive were unsure whether to stand or not when he graced them with his presence –in the end they stood and applauded him.

One by one, the hand-picked top table team were introduced by Cllr Griffiths – each telling their background as to how they are the right people to be responsible for allocating NNC’s £400.93m annual budget.

After meeting the 10-strong executive, Mr Farage met 27 of the 40 Reform councillors in the main council chamber, congratulating them on their rise to power.

Warming to his themes of efficiency savings and issues around asylum seekers, Mr Farage said that North Northants would, come a General Eelection, be a ‘bellweather’ authority, emphasizing their need to be unified, at least in public.

Opening the floor to questions, members joked to Mr Farage that Cllr Denis McLean was ‘legal’ despite his Scottish accent.

He ended with a rallying cry – “Do a good job, do well and we’ll go on and win the next General Election.”

In a follow-up interview with The Northants Telegraph, Mr Farage said: “I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t in my wildest dreams think we’d actually win control of the council but here I am in North Northamptonshire – and I’ll be going to West Northamptonshire in the next few weeks.

"I’m coming to meet the team and see the cabinet that’s been appointed to form a bit of a view myself about the team and what it can do – does it need any help from me for example or from head office?

"I’ve been very pleased this morning, I see a cabinet of people with a very broad experience of life people who have done a lot of different things in their lives which makes me confident they can adapt to cabinet roles for the things that really affect lives here in this county.”

Speaking of his meeting with the executive members, he said: “There’s a combination of oldies and newbies, some have been councillors before but most are new.

"You look around the room and what you see are people who have done stuff in their own lives, been successful – can you use those skills? Absolutely you can.

"One of the biggest criticisms of politics both at a county and a national level is there are too many people there who have never done anything else other than politics.”

When asked if his DOGE-style deep-dive into NNC’s spending would find money for council tax cuts, he said he could not promise that.

He said: “I’m not going to make that promise yet. I’m not going to make any false promises. Where we stand today council tax has risen five per cent for every one of the five years and it’s one of the biggest household bills that people face – let’s see what we can do.

"We have found some very questionable expenditure in Kent, we are just beginning this journey, let’s see where we go and see what happens but we’re pretty confident especially in areas that have been one-party states. When you get a situation like that with no scrutiny bad practice tends to happen. I’m confident we will save a lot of money. “

When asked about the morale of council employees he said he would be looking to bring back ‘fun’.

He said: “I don’t know why they decided to split Northamptonshire into two (unitary councils), but that’s what they did so all we can do is deal with the cards that we’re dealt. I get the sense they would rather be one county together but it is what it is so let’s live with it.

"One thing we’re going to do is reverse the work-from-home culture. We believe people need to be together in offices working as teams it leads to a more positive working environment and a more fun environment.

“One of the conversations we’ve been having today was trying to make this a happy place to work and we will do everything we can to achieve that goal. I just think in life, I think people people perform better together. This low morale problem – we will do what we can to deal with that.”

Asked what why he thought the SEN (Special Education Needs) budget had risen so dramatically, he blamed the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic by Boris Johnson’s government.

He said: “Catastrophic failures of repeated lockdowns did so much damage to young people, I think the way the pandemic was handled was perhaps the biggest peacetime mistake ever made by any government in this country.

"There’s some big bills to pick up when it comes to child social care, there’s a lot of work that needs doing. The whole area of SEN provision, given the shape of the council, I would suggest lacks clarity.”

Mr Farage added he was in Corby to cheer on his new councillors.

He added: “I think that you would be very disappointed that if I, as the leader or the incoming new chairman, didn’t come to visit this council, didn’t come to say to this council ‘look if you’ve go problems, if you’ve got shortfalls, we’re here to help you’. That surely is how the relationship ought to be working. I haven’t come to bully them. I haven’t come to tell them off. I’ve come to cheer them on.”

Reflecting on the visit, Cllr Griffiths said: “I think that was a really good positive meeting." Deputy leader Cllr Eddie McDonald added: “I think it’s really important that our leadership understands that not all councils are the same. The council (staff) are so committed, so enthusiastic they want to work with us because they believe quite rightly we will bring positive change.

"The most important thing is that everybody’s happy. A happy workforce is a productive workforce.”