ROBERT Barrowcliffe has a simple message following Reform UK’s sweeping victories in Tameside’s local elections.
We are here to take over.
The party led by Nigel Farage now has the second biggest group in the borough authority after winning an astonishing 18 of the 19 seats available on Thursday, May 7.
It ended 47 years of Labour control, but do not think they will stop there.
For the leader of Reform UK in Tameside believes the platform has now been laid to take full control in future.
Mr Barrowcliffe said: “I think it shows that we are set to take the majority next year. The people desire change.
“We’ve had 47 years of steady decline in living standards, costs of living, record immigration into our towns, record rents increasing. So people want change.
“They want to know that they can put their trust in their public representatives and they’re giving us a chance.
“They’ve lent us their vote this time and we won’t let them down.”
One of the main complaints around Reform UK’s Tameside campaign is a perceived lack of policies that relate to the doorstep.
Council leader, Cllr Eleanor Wills, says she is not sure whether they have any, but The Correspondent drilled down to what people see and experience every day.
Mr Barrowcliffe added: “On the local level, it’s simple things like making sure that social housing is allocated to local people first.
“In a minority we won’t be able to do that, but with a majority we will be able to do that.
“There’s also getting the basics right. Basic road maintenance, potholes being filled, bin collections, grass being cut.
“These are the basics that have been neglected because I think after 47 years of control over the council, the Labour councillors, they’re only human, but they’ve become very, very complacent.
“I don’t think they’re bad people. However, all I saw at the count in the 18 candidates who were elected, and even the one that wasn’t, is great, competent, professional people that want to pass on the towns and the place that we live to the next generation better than they received it.”
This year’s local election was as polarised as any in living memory after the rise of Reform UK on the right wing and the Green Party on the left.
But Mr Barrowcliffe claimed it was his candidates and campaigners that were receiving abuse and said a ‘hostile media environment’ – although The Correspondent can categorically say it has no done anything that would bring such a conclusion – did not help.
He continued, referring to Labour followers: “I think they’ve thrown some accusations our way at times which are less than founded.
“I think mainly it’s stoked by a hostile media environment. The larger national trends, the racism allegations, the accusations against us.
“Essentially making out our councillors, our candidates, our members to be horrible people when actually they’re just really normal, decent people with common sense viewpoints that otherwise don’t get acknowledged.
“I think we address uncomfortable truths at times, but we are fearless.
“And I’ll say this, no-one receives as much flack, no-one has taken as much animosity and stick than our candidates – and we haven’t moaned once, we haven’t pushed through.
“The amount of vandalism that has happened to the signs of Reform households, you’ll never hear us moaning about it, but it is a problem.”
Now the dust can think about starting to settle on a tumultuous election night, the question is now asked of Tameside, ‘What happens now?’
But Mr Barrowcliffe believes there is only one answer – Reform UK taking a majority in 2027.
He told The Correspondent: “I think we can take a majority over the next two years, probably next year based on this result.
“I know and have confidence in our councillors that they will do a fantastic job in representing the people of their wards and representing themselves.
“You can say this about them, they have zero political experience, that’s true. I see that as a positive, not as a negative.
“Of course we’re willing to cooperate on the issues that we agree on, however we intend on setting the agenda this year.
“Labour has set the agenda for 47 years. It’s now time for a new way of thinking.”