Reform leader Nigel Farage and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch exchange barbs during Hampshire visit - In Pictures

Rival political leaders have traded barbs after their Hampshire visits coincided ahead of next week’s local election.

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, and Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservatives, have exchanged verbal blows today (May 1) as the pair visited different parts of Hampshire ahead of the local elections on Thursday, May 7.

Farage, MP for Clacton, has been campaigning around West Sussex and Hampshire over the past two days, with Waterlooville Precinct the most recent stop on his campaigning trail, where he met with residents and traders, before heading to a local pub to meet supporters.

During his visit he was joined by the former Conservative home secretary and MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, Suella Braverman, who defected to Reform at the start of this year after ‘losing all hope’ in the party.

Our democracy reporter quizzed Farage on why Reform attracts so many Conservative defections at both national and local level. He said: “The Conservatives have been the dominant party in British politics on and off for 200 years and I think you’re witnessing the end of it – something very big and very historic is going on.

“The two party system that we’ve known for a century is melting before our eyes.”

Meanwhile, over in Gosport Badenoch visited UK Docks Marine Services at Victoria Quay to announce a policy where they would spend money from the shelved Chagos deal on pushing out Royal Navy frigates faster.

While there, she addressed the growing pressure from Reform in Gosport, Fareham, and Havant.

She told The News: “The Conservatives are the party that wants to bring this fragmented country together. It’s a new party, with a new leader. We acknowledged that mistakes were made in the past.

“Nigel Farage is too busy having to explain why someone gave him £5m which he trousered without making a report of it. We’re talking about serious things. About defence, how we defend our country, how we get people working again and off welfare. That’s the message we’re taking up and down Hampshire, and I think the people here will like what they have to say.”