Nigel Farage ‘will not be the Messiah – he is simply going to make it worse,’ claims Carol Vorderman
Countdown maths star Carol Vorderman has launched a fierce attack on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK ahead of the local elections, accusing the party of misleading voters about council tax policies and making false promises to working families
The TV host has hit out at the Reform leader(Image: Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)
Maths whizz Carol Vorderman claims Reform UK will contribute nothing, split the country and increase our council tax bills if they secure greater influence in Thursday’s local elections.
The Countdown legend implored voters to reject Nigel Farage’s party, branding them dishonest, hypocritical and peddling empty pledges. She declared: “I absolutely loathe Reform. I loathe them to the very cell of my being. All they want is division. And they lie. The scale of the hypocrisy is insurmountable. They say, ‘We are the party of the working people’, but I couldn’t think of any party, even the Conservatives, that are worse than them.”
Regarding Farage, she continued: “He’s just so thin-skinned. But people are beginning to see him for who he is.”
Carol, 65, who received an MBE in 2000 for services to broadcasting, claims Reform have already deceived voters by hiking council tax in authorities they captured last year, despite candidates in certain areas pledging to freeze or reduce rates, reports the Mirror.
In May 2025, local elections took place across 23 of England’s councils. Reform UK secured the highest number of seats with 677 – representing 41% of all seats contested.
The subsequent month, Farage unveiled a Reform Department of Government Efficiency, modelled on tech mogul Elon Musk’s initiative, to examine and slash “wasteful” expenditure in local authorities.
However, Carol argued: “They’ve had to put up council tax in every single council. In Worcestershire one went up by 9%.
“It’s all lies. And people have seen that, and they’ve seen, actually, all these promises are a load of rubbish. The best thing that happened for this country was that they won 12 councils in last year’s elections, because they were promising ‘we’re going to cut tax.’ Then they launched Doge, which fizzled out, because they haven’t saved any money anywhere, and nobody mentions it anymore.”
Carol, who has hosted The Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards since 1999, gained recognition through her mathematical skills on Channel 4 game show Countdown.
A King’s Trust ambassador, renowned for her candid political opinions, Carol encourages people to visit polling stations on May 7, when numerous mayoral and local council positions will be contested in England.
Voters in Scotland and Wales will choose representatives for their parliaments.
She stated: “This is my belief: Reform won 41% of the local elections last year, and it was all based on promise and fluff – lies to working class people, and I can’t forgive them for that. I think that about 8% will always vote for them, a bit like the Magas in Trump’s America. They like Farage because he’s always talking about migrants and their sensitivities are that they just don’t want people of colour living anywhere near them. But not all Reform voters are like that.
“You have other people who are just pissed off with our system, as am I. As are most of us. We’re all p***ed off with it. But people are seeing now that Farage is not the Messiah, he’s not going to change anything. He is just going to make it even worse. The numbers will fall and I reckon before the general election they’ll be at like 12% and all those billionaires will have wasted their money.”
Her criticism of money-squandering billionaires relates to Christopher Harborne, who contributed a record £9 million to Reform in 2025 and an additional £3 million in March this year. The tycoon has handed over £22m to Reform across seven years – representing two thirds of all funds received. Last month, the Thailand-based entrepreneur claimed he was behind the government’s announcement of a £100K cap on donations from British citizens residing abroad.
Questioning why billionaires are suddenly taking an interest in British politics, Carol enquired: “Is it because they really care what’s happening to somebody in Warrington? No, they don’t.”
With a survey revealing just 29% of British adults are content with how Nigel Farage is performing his role as Reform leader, Carol – speaking from her home city of Bristol – believes the public now see right through him. The mother-of-two also believes his much-publicised alliance with US President Donald Trump is now proving counterproductive. She remarked: “Trump is hugely loathed in this country.
Farage is hugely loathed. He’s actually loathed by two-thirds of the population. People see him for what he is. The worse that we’ve seen Trump become, the worse it is for Farage. That has had a huge effect. I think that we have seen the transition of the far right, we’ve seen their peak.”
Most Britons, she argues, desire genuine change rather than discord. She went on: “Most people in this country are good hearted. They’re not racist bigots. They are not nasty people.” And as Trump’s standing falls in the US, she remains optimistic that Farage’s influence will decline alongside it. She observed: “I am very hopeful, because in America’s latest local elections, Democrats are wiping the floor.”
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