Elections 2026: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage writes for The News

Britain is broken.

As someone who loves their country, that is not something I say lightly.

But it is undoubtedly true.

Of all the complaints I’ve heard travelling from town to town over the past 18 months, there is one phrase I hear over and over: Nothing seems to work any more.

Nowhere is that sentiment felt more strongly than at local council level.

Just look around you: Bins are overflowing, schools are struggling and our roads are pockmarked with potholes. Meanwhile, our neighbourhoods are over-run with crime.

Yet despite all this, council tax bills continue to go up. In Portsmouth, council tax has increased by over 25 per cent in the past five years. It's not hard to see why.

Portsmouth’s CEO earns more than £190,000 a year - more than the Prime Minister - to oversee this mess.

Thanks to the Liberal Democrats’ maladministration, Portsmouth City Council has run up an eye-watering £675m worth of debt. That’s costing almost £25m a year just in interest - the equivalent of £68,000 a day.

But then are you surprised when Portsmouth Council spent in excess of £155,000 in translation services alone, with the city experiencing a 12 per cent increase of asylum seekers in dispersed accommodation in one year.

And violent crime is everywhere - there were over 10,000 incidents in Portsmouth over the past year. It really doesn't have to be this way.

Last year, Reform UK won hundreds of council seats and already we’re seeing the positive impact the party is having in those areas.

Which is why I embarked on a national tour to let voters know how you can fix this country. Because we can't do this without you. We urgently need your help.

Just remember: Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems tried to stop these local elections happening. They wanted them cancelled because they know that voters are desperate to give them a kicking.

So now is your chance to do so. Let’s send Starmer and the rest of the Westminster establishment a clear message.

The turquoise tsunami is coming.