A group of 10 Reform UK councillors have resigned in a bid to get Nigel Farage to step down as the right-wing party’s leader.
The councillors — all of whom are from the Derbyshire region, which is considered key for Reform’s electoral expansion — on Friday said the party’s current management is “either incompetent or malevolent” and slammed Farage for his “autocratic manner.”
The mass resignation comes less than a week after tech mogul Elon Musk demanded Farage leave his post as Reform’s leader, arguing that he “doesn’t have what it takes” to lead the party.
The two men had appeared to be allies as recently as last month, when they were photographed together at U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
But after Farage distanced himself from far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson, the billionaire broke with the British politician.
Musk is a vocal supporter of Robinson, the founder of the far-right English Defense League who is currently in jail in the U.K. for contempt of court. The controversial politician has lately become a divisive factor within Reform, with members’ sharply split on whether to back or reject him.
Earlier this week, the party’s 2024 London mayoral candidate, Howard Cox, quit Reform after clashing with fellow officials over his support for “what [Robinson is] fighting for.”
Highlighting the rift within the party, the outgoing Reform councillors are calling for the party’s former joint deputy leader, Ben Habib, to take over. Habib considers Robinson to be a “political prisoner,” and Musk has recently reposted several of his messages calling for his release.
In media appearances on Friday, Farage said that he had no intention of resigning and characterized the critical councillors as members of a “rogue branch” that had not been properly vetted.
He added that he remained “in touch” with Musk and that he was “still friends” with the tech mogul.
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