Reform UK prepares for real power on a council it now dominates

Just now Share Save Alex Forsyth Political correspondent Hannah Capella Senior political producer Share Save

BBC

In a conference suite on the fourth floor of Lancashire County Council's headquarters, Joshua Roberts smiles as he is handed his new badge. The 27-year-old's photo ID includes his name and new title – Lancashire County Councillor – and hangs off a lanyard that's coincidentally in the trademark turquoise of Reform UK. Roberts runs a website and social media business and has never held elected office before, but now he's one of 53 Reform councillors responsible for running services on behalf of more than 1.2 million people across Lancashire. "I am new, but we've got experienced people too," he said. "I'm glad we're not all new because it would be very intimidating.

"We've had really good officers who have helped us. We've got experienced county councillors who've helped us as well. I feel at ease, I feel like we're going to make real good change." Roberts and his colleagues were attending an induction day organised by council staff for newly elected councillors to get to grips with their roles. As well as collecting their lanyards and being assigned IT login details, there were officers on hand to talk through some aspects of council services and how the authority works.

Having taken 53 of the council's 84 seats the party has a significant majority. It marks a big change for a council which had been led by the Conservatives since 2017, and which had been dominated by the Tories and Labour for decades before that. While most of the newly elected have never been councillors before, there are some who bring experience – like Ged Mirfin, a Conservative councillor who switched to Reform UK six weeks before the elections. "We're getting very badly criticised at the moment for lacking political experience," he said. "But I've never seen a group of people who've had such a large amount of experience from the real world, the world of work."

Before the local elections, Joshua Roberts had never held political office

'Hardened veterans'

Lancashire County Council is one of 10 local authorities that Reform UK won outright control of at the local elections. Its performance in running the councils it now controls is being seen as a test of the party's ability to govern. The relatively new party has grown quickly, and there's been a push to put infrastructure in place. Following the local elections, more than 500 newly-elected councillors attended an event in London where a party source said they were "trained by hardened council veterans on how they can be the most effective champions for their local communities". Reform UK has been criticised for a lack of clarity about its plans for the councils it now runs. The party's leadership has signalled priorities will include reversing net zero initiatives and opposing diversity and inclusion policies. Local authorities have little control over immigration, but Reform's chairman Zia Yusuf has pledged to challenge the use of hotels to house migrants, while Nigel Farage has spoken of a "DOGE" for every council, referring to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, set up in the US to root out waste.

In Lancashire, Cllr Stephen Atkinson is the council leader. He's one of Reform's new councillors who does come with experience, having previously been the Conservative leader of Ribble Valley council before defecting. Sitting in his office at the council's headquarters in Preston, he said the party wanted to "look at every line in the budget" before making decisions. "We need to look at the finances and understand what's happening," he said. "We're determined that this council will have a balanced budget. It will address some of the legacy issues such as special educational needs and development and adult social care. "But we don't want to get into how we are going to do that until we see how the money is." Lancashire County Council, like many authorities across England, has faced budget pressures with growing demand for adults and children services in particular. These services are often statutory, which means a council has to provide them by law, and they make up a significant proportion of the council's budget.

'The wood from the trees'

Cllr Atkinson said: "Two thirds of the budget are on these legal services that you have to provide. That means there is one third that can be looked at… we've got to look at it and say if it helps residents great – if doesn't, why are we doing it? "That's the advantage of Reform – it's a fresh pair of eyes. We have 53 councillors of which 50 are new councillors. "They can see the wood from the trees, they bring that challenge. We do that professionally and in a collaborative manner – but that is a mandate we have to do that." The party is conscious of the scrutiny it will face as the new kids on the political block, who've talked up their own chances of getting the keys to Downing Street in a matter of years. Outside the first full meeting of Lancashire's new-look council there were protests, with trade unionists among those holding banners and placards reading "refugees welcome" and "say no to Reform UK", with speakers saying cutting "waste" would mean cutting services and jobs.

Rebuked by Trump but praised at home: How Ramaphosa might gain from US showdown

4 hours ago Share Save Nick Ericsson BBC World Service Share Save

Reuters President Trump doubled down on his unfounded claims of a white genocide in a remarkable meeting with President Ramaphosa

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa and his delegation went to Washington this week hoping for a boost and a reset after months of acrimony with the Donald Trump administration. Instead they got brutal, high-stakes diplomacy, peppered with insults, and played out to millions across the world in real time. It was like a painful job review carried out by a boss on a loud hailer. Praised by many for remaining composed and reconciliatory in the face of an exercised Trump, while also criticised by some for not responding more forcefully to Tump's accusations, reality awaits Ramaphosa back in South Africa where he and his African National Congress (ANC) face pressures on multiple fronts.

The ANC has been in an uneasy coalition - or government of national unity (GNU) - with 10 other parties for almost a year, forced into sharing power after dismal results in national elections. There have been public fights between parties inside and outside the coalition over controversial land and healthcare legislation and attempts to push a budget through parliament which would hike taxes for the most vulnerable. That almost saw the end of the coalition earlier this year. The economy is stagnating, crime rates are sky-high as is corruption and unemployment, public services are largely dysfunctional and infrastructure is crumbling. There also seems to be very little accountability for those who break the law. This has meant uncomfortable and intense questions about Ramaphosa's policies by various political parties, as well as civil society. Meanwhile the ANC itself is unstable, as opposing factions begin jockeying for position ahead of a crucial elective conference in 2027 which is likely to see a new party leader emerge. At the same time, Ramaphosa's loudest critics, such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema - who featured prominently in Trump's discredited dossier of "evidence" that genocide was being committed against white Afrikaners in South Africa - as well as former President Jacob Zuma, have been getting louder still.

Getty Images South African opposition politician, Julius Malema, featured in Trump's ambush, with the American president showing footage of Malema singing his controversial song - "Shoot the Boer (Afrikaner), Shoot the farmer"

So Ramaphosa was looking for a trade deal, desperately needing the business and stability this would bring to South Africa to stimulate real and lasting economic growth and put people back to work. Ramaphosa said as much to Trump on Wednesday - that US investment was needed to help tackle the joblessness that was a key factor in the country's high crime rate. The risk that the Agoa trade deal with the US may not be renewed later this year because of Trump's isolationist worldview have made this all the more urgent. This gave South Africa duty-free access to the US market for certain goods, and is credited with having boosted South Africa's fragile economy. But the talk of trade was overshadowed by Trump's Oval Office ambush over discredited claims that white South Africans were being persecuted.

However, there may still be a silver lining for Ramaphosa, and by extension his party, at least domestically. Yes, the to-do list is impossibly long, and yes the pressure for the South African president to hold a coalition and party together that is messy and deeply uncomfortable will be waiting for him on his return. And yes the ANC is in the weakest position since it came to power 30 years ago. But it's still in power, even if it's sharing it. Crucially, Ramaphosa's conduct with Trump reminded South Africans of his diplomatic pedigree, and of his importance to the country's rules-based order. He is, along with Nelson Mandela, South Africa's greatest ever alliance builder and facilitator. He was at the nerve centre of negotiating an end to the racist system of apartheid in the early 1990s, and in keeping South Africa together when many had prophesised its fatal fracture. He has stayed calm, smiled and faced down far more bitter opponents before. More recently, he steered the country out of the bleak "state capture" years of the Zuma administration and then through the difficult Covid lockdowns. And also kept the ANC on its feet - just - when it hobbled home after the 2024 elections. He then he took a wounded ANC into coalition politics and survived as president despite opposition from within his own party.

"I believe if a snap poll was done today, we would see his personal ratings go up," says South African editor and founder of explain.co.za Verashni Pillay. "He excels in these high-pressure situations. He has this wealth of negotiating experience in arguably far more tense environments where there has been actual blood on the streets and imminent civil war. That's why you saw him looking particularly relaxed. He's masterful at diffusing tension at key moments." Surveys have consistently referenced the Ramaphosa Effect - the most recent from the Social Research Foundation last month which suggests that without him, the ANC would haemorrhage support even more than it already has, despite equally consistent criticism of the South African president that he is too slow and indecisive in tackling the country's biggest problems. To a large extent, that's still the case.

AFP via Getty Images Ramaphosa remained relatively composed during his meeting with Trump

But events this week, ostensibly meant to bully, ridicule and embarrass Ramaphosa around the world, actually reminded many South Africans of what he brings to the government and the country - a constant, stable and predictable centre. Fact-checking Trump's Oval Office confrontation with Ramaphosa

Ramaphosa keeps cool during Trump's choreographed onslaught

On the South African road incorrectly identified as a 'burial site' by Trump "I think what happened in the Oval Office has reinforced the idea of 'If not Ramaphosa then who?'" says Pillay. In fact, some think that what South Africans saw in the White House will actually strengthen the GNU - backed as it is by big business, which will ultimately reassure South Africans who were watching the drama. "The meeting displayed a united front from South Africa, a public-private performance that the country has been promoting for over a decade. This for the GNU is great political theatre that translates into political capital," says Itumeleng Makgetla, a political analyst at the University of Pretoria. And indeed, the optics were all there. Ramaphosa facilitated a passionate rebuttal of the worst of Trump's misinformation through interventions from his partner in the GNU - Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen - and one of South Africa's wealthiest people, Johann Rupert - both white South Africans. If Trump understood the power of performance, so too did Ramaphosa. "I do think the GNU comes out of this looking quite strong," says Pillay. "The GNU happened at a really good moment for South Africa ahead of this crisis. If it was just the ANC government in the room, [Ramaphosa's arguments] wouldn't have landed. But being able to say that we have these parties that represent white people in government is such a strong statement."

Getty Images Johann Rupert (left), South Africa's richest man, rebuffed President Trump's claim that white people are being specifically targeted

So what does this all mean for those on the extreme flanks of South African politics and discourse? After the lights dimmed, Julius Malema was shown by Trump singing a song that some say calls for the murder of white farmers, although a court has ruled it is just political rhetoric. Might he reap domestic political capital from being thrust into the global spotlight? Yes, say some. "For those in the country that are quite tired of the diatribe from President Trump and the US… this will likely strengthen Malema [and] parties like the MK because it'll basically be saying: 'Look, surely we can't be bending over backwards for such individuals and lies,'" says South African political analyst Prof Kagiso "TK" Pooe from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. But Pillay disagrees. "This will not translate into political power for Malema. Most of his top leaders have already defected to Jacob Zuma's MK party. Things for the EFF were not looking good, even before Wednesday. Julius Malema's brand of politics, of wanting everything to burn down, of blaming white people for everything... is entertaining but it hasn't won votes because most South Africans don't want their country to be burnt down." Having said that, there is a sizeable group of South Africans who want faster and more radical change - the election results for the MK party, a breakaway faction of the ANC, shows that. And what of Afriforum - the Afrikaner interest group that tugged at the ears of Trump's supporters for a number of years by lobbying and spreading right-wing propaganda, hoping to be heard? Trump's discredited audio-visual presentation of what he said was the systematic extermination of white Afrikaner farmers was the high-water mark of their lobbying efforts, amplified as they were in the Oval Office. Yet, despite extraordinarily high levels of violent crime in South Africa, many are angry at the group. "In a way, I think a lot of South Africans - even those that don't support the ANC - can finally see that there are certain people that are not for South Africa. Those people have been singled out and that's a positive in a way," says Prof Pooe. "We know a large number of Afrikaans speakers are people of colour," says Pillay. "Afriforum dealt a severe blow to the cause of Afrikaners in South Africa by racialising it." Afriforum's Kallie Kriel has defended the group's conduct on a local television channel, Newzroom Afrika: "It wasn't Afriforum chanting genocidal calls for someone to be killed. If President Ramaphosa went there to tell the Americans that they don't know what's going on, they will see that as an insult because they have an embassy in South Africa and a State Department and intelligence services," he said.

As the dust settles from Wednesday's drama, Ramaphosa will be watching and calculating. He has consistently been at the centre of key inflection points in recent South African history when some kind of a rupture has occurred and the country has had to change course dramatically. He reads these moments so well. Wednesday's upheaval in Trump's White House may not have been the economic and diplomatic reset with the US that was hoped, but could yet mark a dramatic reset for Ramaphosa and the GNU with the South African public. Additional reporting by Khanyisile Ngcobo in Johannesburg

More from the BBC about US-South Africa relations:

Getty Images/BBC

'I don't know what we'll do' - Vapers panic-buy ahead of disposables ban

30 minutes ago Share Save Ruth Clegg Health and wellbeing reporter Share Save

Cara Hallinan Cara is stockpiling ahead of the ban and says she is hoping to buy enough disposable vapes to last her through the summer

Cara Hallinan says she and many of her friends are feeling very nervous about the looming disposable vape ban. In fact, she says: "I'm not sure what we are going to do." The 25-year-old took up vaping five years ago. One of her friends gave her a puff on theirs and that was it, she could finally wean herself off cigarettes. Cara says it was cherry fizz flavoured vapes which helped her quit her 20-a-day smoking habit, and now, as the ban looms, she's buying as many as she can before they become illegal to sell or supply across the UK. "I've been buying boxes of them from my local discount store. They're trying to get rid of them, so I've been getting ten vapes for £20." Cara says she's got about 40 vapes now, enough to last a few weeks, but she wants to stockpile enough to get her through the summer.

Cara Hallinan Cara says she has been buying boxes of vapes from her local discount store and she will continue until the ban comes in

From 1 June, it will be illegal to buy or sell disposable vapes. Only devices considered to be reusable will be legal. They must have a rechargeable battery, a replaceable coil and be refillable. Cara understands there will still be a wide variety of vapes out there to buy, but she's not convinced they will work for her. "With everything else going on in my life, what if I forget to recharge my vape? And then I wake up one morning without a vape, or I run out of charge at work? "I'm used to the ease of being able to buy a disposable one when I need." Cara is one of more than three million ex-smokers who have made the switch from cigarettes to vapes over the past few years. While vapes are considered a healthier alternative to cigarettes, there are concerns that vaping provides a gateway into nicotine addiction - with disposable vapes enticing children and young people with their fruity flavours and cheap prices. Even though rechargeable vapes are the most popular, there are still around 30% of vapers who prefer to use disposable vapes.

"One of the big attractions is ease of use," Dan Marchant, owner of online retailer, Vape Club, and co-founder of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), says. "Buying a disposable vape is like buying a packet of cigarettes – just nip to the shop and get one over the counter." He says he's seen sales of the most popular flavours of vapes double over the past few weeks as some customers stock up. Another online retailer, Haypp, has also seen sales rise ahead of the ban. Haypp's scientific director, Dr Marina Murphy, said: "Daily sales are now regularly surpassing even our Black Friday peaks, which had previously been our biggest sales days." Some are worried about the change in taste. Disposable vapes tend to be sweeter than refillable vapes due to them often having more sweeteners and nicotine salts in the E-liquid.

'Smoker of the year award'

After 40 years of chain-smoking cigarettes, Baroness Claire Fox of Buckley says it was the strawberry and banana flavour disposable vapes that finally helped her quit. "They worked a treat and for the past 18 months I have been smoke-free." The 64-year-old peer admits it wasn't easy, but after being advised by two doctors to try vapes, she's gone from being the "proud winner of the smoker of the year award" to a life free from the harms of tobacco.

Andrew Firth Baroness Fox smoked for 40 years but says she finally stopped 18 months ago with the help of strawberry and banana flavoured disposable vapes

And now, she says, she is dreading 1 June when the disposable vape ban comes in. "I've been stocking up with stashes of brightly-coloured vape boxes both at home and at work. "The rechargables have a metallic, battery taste which I don't like." She says disposable vapes have had a "miraculous impact on smoking levels". "Finally, we have a smoking cessation device that works and we ban it - it's counter- productive and daft." The outspoken peer, who often berates legislation she sees as infringing civil liberties, says environmental concerns are clearly trumping public health concerns.

The UK government wants to reduce the impact on the environment – an estimated five million disposable vapes were thrown away last year – and cut the number of children and young people vaping. Health experts agree anyone who does not smoke should not start vaping, as it may cause long-term damage to lungs, hearts and brains.

A Censuswide poll, commissioned by Vape Club, asked 2,000 vapers across the UK how their habits were going to change in the wake of the ban next month. While 49% of people who use disposable vapes said they were going to switch to different types of rechargeable devices, and 16% said they were going to stop vaping altogether, it has also produced some "worrying results", Mr Marchant says. "We found that 11% said they were going to stockpile after the ban - by going abroad and buying from countries where disposables are sold legally and then bringing them back into the UK. "And more worryingly, 18% said if they couldn't get hold of disposable vapes they would go back to smoking after the ban comes in."

Ruth Clegg Nick says he's going to have to throw out £6,000 worth of disposable vapes when the ban comes in

This is something, Nick, who owns Mist Vapes, recognises, as he points to the local newsagent a few shops down the road in Whalley Range, south Manchester. "Many of my regular customers say they will stop vaping when the ban comes in, instead of coming here, they'll go to Booze and Cigs down the road and pick up a pack of cigarettes and go back to smoking." He is worried about the future of his business. He points to the rows of pastel-coloured boxes, lined up on shelves that cover a whole wall in his shop. There are popular flavours like pineapple ice, rainbow and blueberry sour. "They'll have to go," he says. "And that's nearly £6,000 worth of stock down the drain. "I only set up my business a year ago, so it's relatively new. I knew the ban was coming, but with 90% of my sales being disposable, I've had to keep on restocking." He believes the government has failed small retail shops like his own. "I don't think it's going to make much difference to vaping habits – many of the rechargeable vapes now look the same as the disposable, you can buy them pre-filled and charged." He turns one over – the only difference he says is the charging point at the bottom. "I'm selling the rechargeable at the same price but with less of a mark-up."

Ruth Clegg Nick says there is very little difference between the disposable and the refillable

Can Donald Trump build the 'Golden Dome' over the US?

4 hours ago Share Save Bernd Debusmann Jr BBC News, White House Share Save

Getty Images Trump said the Golden Dome will be completed by the end of his term.

Warheads raining down from beyond the Earth's atmosphere. Faster-than-sound cruise missiles striking US infrastructure. Sky-high nuclear blasts. These are just some of the nightmarish scenarios that experts warn could come true if the US's dated and limited defence systems were overwhelmed in a future high-tech attack. Even a single, relatively small nuclear detonation hundreds of miles above the heads of Americans would create an electromagnetic pulse - or EMP - that would have apocalyptic results. Planes would fall out of the sky across the country. Everything from handheld electronics and medical devices to water systems would be rendered completely useless. "We wouldn't be going back 100 years," said William Fortschen, an author and weapons researcher at Montreat College in North Carolina. "We'd lose it all, and we don't know how to rebuild it. It would be the equivalent of us going back 1,000 years and having to start from scratch." In response to these hypothetical - but experts say quite possible - threats, US President Donald Trump has set his eyes on a "next generation" missile shield: the Golden Dome. But while many experts agree that building such a system is necessary, its high cost and logistical complexity will make Trump's mission to bolster America's missile defences extremely challenging.

An executive order calling for the creation of what was initially termed the "Iron Dome for America" noted that the threat of next-generation weapons has "become more intense and complex" over time, a potentially "catastrophic" scenario for the US. Patrycja Bazylczyk, a missile defence expert at the Washington DC-headquartered Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the BBC that existing systems are geared towards intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, such as those used by North Korea. But powerful nations like Russia and China are also investing in newer technologies that could strike not just neighbours, but adversaries an ocean away. Among the threats publicly identified by US defence officials are hypersonic weapons able to move faster than the speed of sound and fractional orbital bombardment systems - also called Fobs - that could deliver warheads from space. Each - even in limited numbers - are deadly. "The Golden Dome sort of re-orients our missile defence policy towards our great power competitors," Ms Bazylczyk said. "Our adversaries are investing in long-range strike capabilities, including things that aren't your typical missiles that we've been dealing with for years."

What will the 'Golden Dome' look like?

The White House and defence officials have so far provided few concrete details about what the Golden Dome - which is still in its conceptual stages - would actually look like. Speaking alongside Trump in the Oval Office on 20 May, defence secretary Pete Hegseth said only that the system will have multiple layers "across the land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors". Trump added that the system will be capable of intercepting missiles "even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they are launched in space", with various aspects of the programme based as far afield as Florida, Indiana and Alaska. In previous testimony in Congress, the newly named overseer of the programme, Space Force General Michael Guetlein, said that the Golden Dome will build on existing systems that are largely aimed at traditional ICBMs. A new system would - add multiple layers that could also detect and defend against cruise missiles and other threats, including by intercepting them before they launch or at the various stages of their flight. Currently, the US Missile Defence Agency largely relies on 44 ground-based interceptors based in Alaska and California, designed to combat a limited missile attack. Experts have warned that the existing system is woefully inadequate if the US homeland were to be attacked by Russia and China, each of which has an expanded arsenal of hundreds of ICBMs and thousands of cruise missiles. "[Current systems] were created for North Korea," said Dr Stacie Pettyjohn, a defence expert at the Center for a New American Security. "It could never intercept a big arsenal like Russia's, or even a much smaller one like China's." The Congressional Research Office, or CBO, has said that "hundreds or thousands" of space-based platforms would be necessary to "provide even a minimal defence" against incoming missiles - a potentially enormously expensive proposition.

Israel's Iron Dome: an example?

Trump first revealed his concept for the Golden Dome during a joint address to Congress in March, when he said that "Israel has it, other places have it, and the United States should have it too". The president was referring to Israel's "Iron Dome" system, which the country has used to intercept rockets and missiles since 2011. Israel's Iron Dome, however, is designed to intercept shorter-range threats, while two other systems - known as David's Sling and the Arrow - combat larger ballistic missiles such as those that have been fired by Iran and the Houthis in Yemen. Ms Bazylczyk described the Iron Dome as geared towards "lower tier" threats, such as rockets fired from Gaza or southern Lebanon. The Golden Dome would go beyond that, to detect longer range missiles as well, she said. To accomplish that, she said it will need to combine different capabilities. "And I'll be looking out for the command and control system that can weave all of this together," she said, noting that such a thing does not currently exist.

Can it be done?