Lib Dems launch ‘Reform watch’ to monitor party in local government

The Liberal Democrats have set up an internal “Reform watch” system to monitor Nigel Farage’s party in local government, with Ed Davey saying Labour and the Conservatives are too scared of the threat from Reform to hold it to account. The Lib Dem leader defended his party’s performance in last week’s local elections, saying council contests where they unexpectedly ended up behind Reform mainly happened because of a collapse in votes for other parties. A key part of the monitoring will be to see if and how Reform-run councils try to cut services, Davey said. Similarly, while they achieved their target of removing Warwickshire council from Tory control, this involved finishing a fairly distant second to Reform. From what I can see, we’re the only party who seem to be up for that.