Reform’s War on Woke Is Already Falling Apart

Farage’s foot soldiers vowed to sack diversity officers, crush leftist elites, and defend ‘British values’. Now in power, they can’t even find the enemies they promised to purge.

Farage’s culture warriors promised a purge of ‘woke elites’ and a defence of Britain’s ‘Judeo-Christian’ values — but as they seize control of local councils, their crusade is already unravelling under the weight of its own contradictions. Reform’s make-believe revolution hits reality as the promised purge has them sacking phantoms.

Reform in Power: When Populist Fantasies Meet Political Reality

In my previous piece, I argued that Reform UK is more than a protest party — it is the political expression of a deep cultural revolt and economic frustration that transcends traditional left-right divides, posing a structural threat to both Labour and the Conservatives. Now, with Reform securing real power in local councils, the question shifts from why voters have flocked to Nigel Farage’s nationalist, populist, and inherently contradictory outfit to what the party intends to do with its newfound authority. Early signs suggest a volatile cocktail of cultural crusading, administrative slash-and-burn, and ideological fantasies already colliding with political reality — exposing just how unstable and incoherent Farage’s populist project really is.

Weaponising ‘Judeo-Christian Culture’: Targeting Asylum Seekers

For over a year, Nigel Farage has vowed to defend Britain’s “Judeo-Christian” culture from Muslim immigrants whom he claims reject British values. This rhetoric slots neatly into Farage’s broader narrative: Reform UK is waging a war against a leftist elite allegedly conspiring to sell the country out. In this worldview, Farage and his allies cast themselves as patriots resisting both immigration and progressive values.

Last year, Farage claimed that Rishi Sunak had let in “more people into the country who are going to fight British values” than any leader before him. Later, on Sky News, he warned Trevor Phillips of a “growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values, [who] in fact loathe much of what we stand for.” He cited surveys claiming 46% of British Muslims supported Hamas — a proscribed terrorist organisation.

Invoking “Judeo-Christian values” has long been a favourite tactic of the far-right to define citizenship in exclusivist terms — implicitly White, Christian (or Jewish), and hostile to Muslims. Intellectuals like Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington popularised this framing, drawing stark lines between a ‘civilised’ democratic West and an allegedly backward, violent Islamic world. Since 9/11, a neo-Orientalist mindset seeks a return to such thinking — and it underpins much of Reform UK’s agenda.

This worldview explains why Dame Andrea Jenkyns, in her acceptance speech as Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, pledged to move asylum seekers out of housing and into tents, insisting canvas was “good enough” for them.

The ‘DOGE’ Agenda: Fighting a Twilight Struggle Against the ‘Woke Left’ Conspiracy

Central to Reform’s plans is Farage’s vision of a “DOGE in every county” — a pledge to slash local government and root out the ‘woke left’. In a speech in Durham, Farage warned council staff working on “climate change initiatives or Diversity, Equality and Inclusion” to consider alternative careers. He promised to cut excessive council spending and refocus local government on potholes, social care, and special educational needs.

The underlying narrative is familiar: thousands of local government employees, allegedly phoning it as they work from home, while DEI officers orchestrate a grand leftist Gramscite slow-march through the institutions conspiracy. According to Reform, this cabal is busy with ‘DEI plots to turn kids gay or trans, letting in boatloads of Muslim terrorists, and — of course — “neglecting potholes.”

Yet reality is already colliding with Reform’s fantasies.

On May 4th, newly elected Mayor Andrea Jenkyns vowed to sack diversity officers in Lincolnshire, declaring, “We are going to have a Lincolnshire Doge. We are going to ensure that we get rid of diversity officers because amazingly Lincolnshire County Council is now Reform controlled.” She also pledged to cut 10% of the council workforce in her “war on woke.”

One small hitch: Lincolnshire doesn’t employ a single Diversity, Equality and Inclusion officer. Undeterred, Jenkyns insisted on LBC that her ‘instincts’ told her the jobs were there, just hidden under different titles — part of that same leftie conspiracy Farage railed against in Durham.

This, of course, is the same ‘instinct’ Jenkyns demonstrated as a Tory minister when she famously flipped her Diogenes middle finger at taxpayers outside Parliament.

‘Stopping the Persecution of Christians’?

Let’s take this logic further. Staffordshire County Council, now Reform-run, employs 10,001 people. If Jenkyns’ blueprint were followed here, roughly 1,000 employees would be sacked overnight — on the shaky premise that an imaginary DEI army is draining taxpayer funds.

Yet Staffordshire’s 2024 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion report contains nothing resembling radical wokery. It simply notes, for example, that the council doesn’t collect marital status in recruitment — a standard HR practice.

Far from waging war on Christianity, the report shows that Christian applicants were 1.3 times more likely to be shortlisted and 1.4 times more likely to be hired than applicants of other religions or beliefs. In short, the Tory-run council was favouring Christian applicants all along.

If you’re a freshly elected Reform councillor, this could pose a problem. Better to sack the imaginary DEI staff behind the report before voters discover how hollow your anti-woke crusade really is.

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Dean M Thomson is currently a lecturer with Beijing Normal - Baptist University (BNBU), formerly known as Beijing Normal - Hong Kong Baptist University, United International College (UIC).

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