Farage 'will fight' Essex council reorganisation

Reform leader Nigel Farage has said he is "deeply sceptical" about changes to local councils in Essex.

"We should fight against this," Clacton MP Farage told the BBC. "I think that to maintain overall the presence of an identifiable county council is the right way to go."

Steve Reed, the Labour government's communities secretary, has previously said local government reorganisation (LGR) will save "tens of millions of pounds" and "remove the confusion and waste of doubled-up bureaucracy".

Speaking while campaigning in Corringham ahead of the local elections on 7 May, Farage said: "The idea that you take the county of Essex, you carve it up into a series of unitaries, you then impose a mayor upon it — nobody here has asked for massive local government change.

"Nobody here has asked for Essex to have a mayor.

"I think the danger is that you get rid of the county council... and you begin to lose a sense of what Essex as a county is."

The party leader said Reform would try to put a stop to LGR.

The latest plans for the biggest reshape in local democracy in half a century in Essex have been worked on by different councils and political parties for years.

Fewer all-purpose unitary councils are expected to save money and be simpler for residents. Opponents argue local government will not be so local with councillors representing larger areas.

Deputy county council leader, Conservative Louise McKinlay, argued "it just demonstrates Nigel Farage knows nothing about local government".

McKinlay, who supports the three-unitary model for Essex, said the existing councils were facing challenges.

"We know the financial pressures are there. It is only going to get harder," she said.

"We have got increases in social care. We know we want to go far further and do more for our county. By having that joined approach through the councils coming together we will be in a much stronger place."

However, some Reform councillors have supported LGR.

Peter Harris, the party's Greater Essex mayoral candidate, was also Farage's election agent in Clacton.

In January, he said: "We need to get behind [LGR] and make sure that it happens."

Other political parties hold different views on LGR. Most Conservative council leaders back the three-council option though some Tory MPs prefer the five-council option, which is widely supported by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

However, Labour-run Thurrock Council has proposed a four-council model.

Farage's position raises doubt over whether LGR can be delivered.

At the time, the Labour leader of Basildon Borough Council, Gavin Callaghan, said: "There is now no doubt that LGR in Essex is over."

McKinlay, who is the Conservative mayoral candidate for Greater Essex, added: "If it unravels it is simply going to mean there's going to have been a lot of wasted time, effort, energy, money, collaboration and focus which we have all put in cross-party, across the county.

"Going forward it will be mean we can't take advantage of the economies of scale."

It is understood the government could announce next week how many councils Essex will have.

The Department for Housing, Communities & Local Government has been approached for comment.