If you voted Reform, I would love to know why?

[AplineDaisies]

I am not here to judge so would just like to hear from Reform voters for their reasoning.

I didn’t vote for them as I don’t agree with a lot of the more extreme things in their policies and I’m not convinced they’ll help low earners but I think many people in this country are desperate for something to change. We can all see it falling apart and nobody seems to be doing anything except take more and more money from the average person.

Housing is very difficult to afford for youngsters starting out who may still be on low wages and it is limiting their ability to move to better paid work.

Single people doing low paid but necessary work ( the people being clapped as key workers during Covid) have wages too low to afford homes and have a proper quality of life even working full time.

Our essential services aren’t able to deliver. It is so hard for many people that people are looking for a way out.

This country is crying out for help, especially those who aren’t wealthy enough to be unaffected by cost of living and can afford private health care.

Labour have slowly destroyed our lovely town. I voted Reform as a protest vote and many others in my constituency did the same.

The point, for many, was to send a message. Labour are not listening to the concerns of the average voter. My Labour councillor ignores my emails and demonstrably couldn't care less about our area.

Do I want a Reform council, or indeed Government? Not really. Would I vote for them again to keep Labour out? Yes. I would.

For the first time ever I thought about not turning out. I'm 53 and am committed to the democratic process and even i thought about not turning out.

Then did to register my protest vote.

What was interesting though is our average turnout vote in my area went up. It was circa 41% last time- it went up to over 50% this time. That tells me that people were angry enough. . And reform romped it in If Labour are too stupid to fully, and clear-headedly- see what this means then they are fucked.

Personally I think we ought to have compulsory voting. I know that's unpopular here due to 'freedom' or whatever but we don't get a choice about paying taxes. I think we need to vote.

Nigel get off mumsnet.

If Reform ended up in power we’d have no NHS before long and as you say, they wouldn’t be able to afford private healthcare. I work for the NHS and it keeps me awake at night sometimes as I love my job and worry it would disappear. Honestly reform will not help working class people. It’s a big fat con. I wish people realised that.

This is so typical. And why people don’t answer the why vote this way threads.

This is true and has been spoken about before. The DA is a red herring. The boats started because lorry and tunnel security was ramped up. The boats were not predictable at that point.

The biggest reason for these things is immigration.

It’s about numbers, supply and demand. There are more people, so houses cost more.

There are more people, so wages will be low as more people want and need a job.

There are more people, so services are stretched. You will be waiting longer for a medical appointment.

There are more people, so more cars on the roads, which means more potholes, more maintenance needed. Etc etc etc.

I am not against all immigration but the massive numbers over the last few decades has made this happen.

Rich people won’t be affected of course, they benefit from the massive housing increases and business owners benefit by being able to keep wages low. They can pay for private healthcare and be sheltered from the realities of the normal man on the street.

How kind 😇

I do read the reasons the second poster gives for voting Reform, who is getting a lot of heat here, I think unfairly. They do have lots of points that we need to address, as a nation, in their post. But then, what this quoted post states is what I hear from and above Farage himself.
There is a disconnection between what I hear Reform voters want (whenever it goes further than immigration) and what Farage says. And many times, they are just plainly opposed visions.
Reform is obscure about its purpose, memorandum, vision for UK or council, "colourful" in quite a lot of statements by some of their members, obscure about the source of their funding, and Farage's funding and for whatever reason they have this hate of human rights declaration, equality acts and so on?
One thing is to find something wrong with how a particular bit of human rights is applied in practice or stated in the declaration. And another is to want to be done with it.... very much like Trump DOGE and the other many attacks Trump has done on the US democratic institutions.
Why would we want the risk of something similar in UK is what baffles me?
The difference between the picture voters paint and the picture Farage and the media reporting about him paint. Apnd the picture I see with my very own eyes. They have very little to do with each other.

Here is a fact check on Reform, Farage and the NHS: https://fullfact.org/health/reform-nigel-farage-pay-for-nhs-labour/

Anecdote: I've had several French people reporting to me over the years in London. ALL travel back to France for medical treatment beyond basic GP services because they believe the quality of healthcare they receive is better. Including maternity care and birth.

Farage is completely correct that the current financial and delivery model of the NHS is broken and needs to be reviewed properly. I don't believe he has said at any point he wants to go down the US route but happy to be proven wrong.

This sort of response is why parties like Reform do well. Who are you to sit on high dismissing other people’s views and concerns.

People who say Reform would get rid of the NHS are scaremongering. Something like that would take longer than a 5 year term, and if it was suggested there’s no way they’d be voted back in to carry it out.

Where is your actual argument? The post was perfectly clear. It’s almost like all of those points were valid snd you have no way to argues against them

I don’t believe NF has said he wants a US system. Why do people keep spouting this? What we do need to do is have a sensible cross party review of the broken NHS. It’s become a monster. Look at some of the EU countries for another option.

Stop scare mongering

Yes to this.
I think something that also often gets overlooked is the significant amount of people who don’t vote - either through apathy, confusion, or whatever; Reform are winning councils on less than 40% turnout. With low voter turnout, the left and centre vote split, a Conservative Party in tatters, Reform have a clear route in on the right, and they are well-funded and well-organised in terms of their media spin and messaging (obviously not on policy). I hate that it’s happening, but I can see how we got here and I’m worried about where this is heading.

As a further point, I think it’s helpful to know why people voted Reform, but we really need to be looking harder at who has been and is funding both Reform and Farage - right back to when he was an MEP, UKIP, Brexit Party, etc.

74% of those that turned out voted for parties other than Reform.

Look at the research on immigration to get a true picture of the devastating impact a small population will have in the next decade. We sadly need immigration but we need them working not sponging. That's what needs to change.

Reform don't have a clue. They incite racism. Congrats, you think you know what the issue is but base your view on what's in the press versus real research....

We are doomed.

Or, it could swing the other way and be a roaring success. Almost all of our Reform candidates locally were ex Conservative and Labour, many with experience of doing things locally including in the Labour run Council. As is the case up and down the country.

You obviously don't understand that the strong vote will change the national policies presented by all the main parties at the next election. Or that many people will have voted Reform to make that happen and not with any intention of electing them into Westminster in 2028/9

And you have dared to call Reform voters stupid 🙄

I do a lot of work in Birmingham - there is a disturbing rise from people who want to introduce their own cultural differences into the UK. There are 4 MP’s who have no interest in the UK bar getting Gaza onto the front page.

That’s because the university model in this country is broken. We need to let some fail.

Yep it’s the most effective way to put pressure on at a national level, people seem a bit unaware.

And what would you suggest we do instead? Should we allow only those with a certain level of education or economic activity to vote?!

Thought not.

Universities love overseas students to get the additional fees. Look up how much Vice Chancellors pay themselves at say Exeter University. Then there are universities which are not fit for purpose. Colleges that are above a kebab shop.

We need a review of this. We won’t do it because all those VC’s on their Defined Benefits pensions along with their staff will be in uproar