Reform UK Says Britain Is Broken. Birmingham Tells Another Story

Reform UK arrived in Birmingham this week with thousands of supporters and a clear message: it wants to present itself as a government-in-waiting. The party has repeatedly chosen Britain’s second-biggest city for national launches and conferences, investing heavily in making it a showcase for its advance.

Birmingham fits the image of Britain that Reform leader Nigel Farage’s politics presents as a warning. It is young, working-class and multiracial, with residents recorded in the 2021 census split almost evenly between the broad white category, at 48.6 percent, and Black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic categories, at 51.4 percent.

But Reform’s gains do not show that multiculturalism has failed. They point instead to a spreading sense of abandonment across Britain. In May’s local elections, Reform won 23 of the 101 seats on Birmingham City Council, making it the largest single group. Its strongest results came in poorer, less diverse outer-city wards.

The wider result was fragmentation, not a far-right conversion. The Greens won the largest number of votes across the city but secured 19 seats under the first-past-the-post system. Labour fell to 17 seats from 65, while the Conservatives won 16 and the Liberal Democrats 12. Independent groups and candidates took 14 seats.

Reform’s position has not given it control of the council. It found no governing partners, and Birmingham is now run by a collaborative minority administration involving the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Better Birmingham independents. A Liberal Democrat leads the council, with a Green deputy.

That leaves Reform with a foothold, not a victory. Birmingham is not one electoral community, but a mosaic of neighbourhoods with different histories, class backgrounds and political instincts. Citywide diversity does not mean every ward shares the same profile, and ethnicity is not the only factor shaping how residents vote.

The political opening created by Labour’s decline also runs in more than one direction. Reform is benefiting, but the Greens are using the same disillusionment to offer a progressive alternative built around economic justice, public investment and opposition to racism. Their national position strengthened after they won the Gorton and Denton by-election in February.