Reform UK has announced millionaire Brexit-backing Arron Banks as its mayoral candidate for the West of England.
The businessman founded the Leave EU campaign with now-Reform MP Richard Tice and was previously one of the largest donors to Ukip.
‘Vote Banksy for Bristol,’ he said as his candidacy was announced at Reform UK’s local election launch in Birmingham.
He admitted he was ‘really unpopular in Bristol’ but claimed the city was a ‘five-way battle’ which Reform could win.
The Reform leader Nigel Farage entered for his speech at the election launch on a JCB vehicle.
Mr Farage said the vehicle was lent to him for the event by Lord Bamford, the chairman of JCB, who has previously donated money to the Conservative Party and is a close friend of former prime minister Boris Johnson.
He said the vehicle was a ‘pothole pro’ as he hailed the ‘most ambitious launch’ for a local election campaign’, adding that potholes are the ‘perfect symbol for broken Britain’.
Mr Farage went on to say that ‘a Reform government will leave the European Court of Human Rights’.
Reform UK has announced millionaire Brexit-backing Arron Banks as its mayoral candidate for the West of England
Reform UK leader and MP for Clacton, Nigel Farage arrives riding on a JCB digger
Mr Farage said the vehicle was lent to him for the event by Lord Bamford, the chairman of JCB
He added: ‘We will get rid of the Human Rights Act upon which British lefty judges depend.’
Mr Farage continued: ‘I will reiterate, nobody that comes into our country on the back of a lorry or via a boat will ever be given refugee status, will ever be given leave to remain.
‘It is unfair. It is wrong. It is also deeply unfair to those who have come here legally, and that’s worth thinking about, and let me tell you, everyone that comes illegally will be deported, full stop.’
After a standing ovation and chants of ‘Nigel’, the party leader claimed ‘foreign criminals’ would also be deported.
Meanwhile, Reform deputy leader Richard Tic echoed the language of Donald Trump’s American presidential campaign at the local election launch, asking if the audience wanted to ‘make Britain great again’.
As the Reform deputy leader finished his speech, he said: ‘What I want to hear from you, as I conclude, I want to hear from you that you believe that we can save Britain. Can we do it?
‘Do you want to grow Britain again? Do you want to make Britain great again?
‘Do you want to make our brilliant strong leader, Nigel Farage, the next elected prime minister of the United Kingdom?’
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice (C) stands at a mock bus stop during the Reform UK campaign launch rally
Mr Farage gives a speech in front of a JCB digger saying that potholes are the ‘perfect symbol for broken Britain’
Mr Farage speaks during the party’s local elections campaign launch at Utilita Arena Birmingham
Meanwhile, Reform deputy leader Richard Tic echoed the language of Donald Trump’s American presidential campaign at the local election launch, asking if the audience wanted to ‘make Britain great again’
The audience of Reform members cheered along in answer to each question.
During his speech he also suggested a UK version of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
He told the rally: ‘We are going to win this May 1, we’re going to win big, we must win big.
‘We can then do a proper job, but if we’re lucky enough to actually run whole councils we can show that we can do a great job bringing in a fantastic team of experts.
‘Root and branch … a sort of county-by-county equivalent of a DOGE maybe is what is required in this country.’Â
Reform MP Lee Anderson also spoke at the conference and said there is ‘no such thing as Islamophobia’ and that it is a ‘made-up word’.
Mr Anderson told the rally that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner ‘keeps banging on about Islamophobia’.
He went on: ‘There’s no such thing as Islamophobia, it’s a made-up word.’
Reform MP Lee Anderson also spoke at the conference and said there is ‘no such thing as Islamophobia’ and that it is a ‘made-up word’
Mr Farage arrives on a JCB digger during the Reform UK local election launch rally at the Utilita Arena Birmingham
During his Mr Farage said Reform UK is ‘on the side of the worker’. He added: ‘We will cut taxes. Nobody that earns less than £20,000 a year should pay any income tax whatsoever’
During his Mr Farage said Reform UK is ‘on the side of the worker’. He added: ‘We will cut taxes. Nobody that earns less than £20,000 a year should pay any income tax whatsoever.
‘We are on the side of the worker, we’re on the side of working people, we want to incentivise those on benefits to get off benefits and go back to work.’
He also leader criticised changes to the non-dom tax, which media reports suggested have led Lakshmi Mittal, an Indian steel magnate, to leave the UK.
Mr Farage said: ‘We cannot help those on lower incomes, we cannot help those that need to access public services, if we get rid of those that pay the most tax because they leave and go to Monaco, Dubai, America, or wherever else it is. We need to be grown-up.
‘We need to encourage people who have got money to come and live here and pay tax and subsidise our public services. Let’s think about this. Let’s use our brains.’
He added: ‘Of course, the media will say, how will you pay for this? Well, I tell you what we need: some pretty big cuts in the administrative state in this country which has grown out of all proportion.’
The Reform leader continued: ‘Frankly folks, what we need in this country to pay for the cuts that people deserve and need, we need a British form of Doge, as Elon Musk has got in America. Let’s have a British Doge.’
Mr Farage wore a light blue hi-vis vest and was met with a standing ovation after his speech ended and seen using a T-shirt cannon launcher to shoot light blue hi-vis vests into the crowd.
