I will be following the Almondbury by election in Kirklees council with interest- already been spending quite a bit of time on it.
It's interesting because I want to see who wins out of Marquis Craven a former Reform candidate standing as an independent and Graham Haigh a current Reform candidate.
Of course it could be the Lib Dems which no right thinking person wants.
What interests me is how much will Marquis Craven 's popular social media presence count vs the Reform brand? I think it is quite signficant.
What's also key to note is that although I've seen plenty of Con and Lib Dem notices on lamp posts I've haven't seen any Reform or any of Marquis' yet. Now I know I have seen pictures of Marquis' on social media...
Makes me honestly question where the money in Reform is going- I know even local branches get reasonable donations. Apparently about 270,000 Reform members now (I haven't verified this and obviously the auto renew captures people who don't want to be members)... where is that money going?
Marquis is basically running the campaign from his own funds and getting help from local volunteers, for free as far as I'm aware.
Now I have seen some paid Reform people canvassing for Reform (even one Councillor from Wakefield) but nothing even on social media about unpaid people canvassing for Reform. Because quite a few members and I presume supporters of Reform are quite elderly in this area this may be a factor behind this.
Overall the reason taxpayers are being charged 30,000 pounds for this election is due to Reform selecting a former Lib Dem candidate who wasn't up for the job. If he felt sick (he's a doctor) he should have notified Reform in the vetting or it should have come up in the vetting. It would be nice to have these issues discussed more widely.
As I've already stated I believe Marquis Craven to be the best candidate although I do need to do more research, especially on his policies on deporting illegal immigrants and stopping illegal workers in the area.
I welcome comments from both Marquis Craven and Graham Haigh on this article
