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The liberal Democrats created the “Farage Fighting Fund” as money was brought in to hoping that the party would step up the UK’s reform tide beyond the English and Wales belts.
Lib Dems had received £100,000 from donors a few weeks ago ahead of the May 1 local elections, and had a concrete mandate to repel the growth of Nigel Farage’s populist party. Another £75,000 has pledged to fund the campaign in next year’s Senate election in Wales, where reforms are expected to work well.
The party hopes the fund will reach £1 million this year, helping LIB DEM to step up its production of campaign materials and digital advertising to counter reforms in key areas that are already strong locally. They believe it is best to neutralize the threat posed by increasing support for reforms in counties, including Devon, Cornwall and Shropshire.
The funds are above the £1 million donated so far to the party in 2025. This is very unusual for Lib Dems from the general election to date.
“Usually, at this point in the election cycle, it’s tumbleweed, but you get a huge amount of support,” one strategist said. “We are considered a breakwater against Farage.”
The elections in the UK, where the third and fourth largest parties in British politics face each other head-on, include a tight hull and an East Yorkshire mayoral race.
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Lib Dems already controls Hull’s local councils, but reforms are Bookies’ favorites.
The reform hopes to win 200 of its 1,641 councils next month, particularly across Durham, Doncaster, Lancashire, Kent and Lincolnshire.
Voting expert Sir John Curtis wrote on Monday that the series of local elections is unprecedented due to the very weak voting performance of two major parties in British politics.
The contests are held in almost exclusively traditionally solid conservative regions. In other words, Tories are the most things to lose. They are keeping around 1,000 seats.
Meanwhile, Lib Dems hopes to be able to overtake conservatives to become the second largest party in local government after labour by targeting conservative councils run by the Conservative Party of Shropshire, Oxfordshire, Cambridge, Devon and Gloucestershire.
Amidst the signs of looming threat posed by reform, an MRP poll conducted by more commons found that if the general election was held today, reform would win 180 seats, and conservatives and workers would be linked to 165 seats.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey last month said last month that campaigners “knocking at the door before people, Farage’s support will just dissipate,” claiming that future election agreements between Tories and Reform are a boon for his party.
“Even in the last election, there will be a lot of people who previously voted for conservatives coming to us,” he said.
The reforms led by Nigel Farage hope to win 200 of the 1,641 seats next month ©Getty Images
Reforms have been voted particularly strongly in Wales ahead of next year’s Welsh government elections, with some polls ahead of the labour and plaid Cymru in around 25% of the votes.
Reform has sent personalized letters from Farage to every home in the UK with eligible voters ahead of local elections.
Some of these letters stated, “Nothing will work any more. You are struggling to get a GP appointment. Your taxes will continue to rise. Your family is struggling with rising bills.
According to party strategists, Lib Dems received £20,000 in donations within days when he emailed members briefing the reform’s personalized letter campaign.
One of the Lib Dem people involved in fundraising said that the purpose of a particular “Farage Fighting Fund” is to sign donors that go beyond their obvious sales strategy and that it will be spent on things they “really care about” by donors.
“We use it really cleverly in the best places. It’s all about the opposite reform,” they said.
