'I can't control thousands of people': Farage irritated as he's questioned on promises Reform hasn't kept

It's three weeks out from the May elections, and Nigel Farage's tour of Britain is in full flow.

He began the day on Monday at a news conference in central London, and I meet him mid-afternoon as he's being loaded onto a small plane to Aberdeen to travel to a members' rally that evening.

Today, he'll fly to the Shetland Islands before travelling to Glasgow and then London. It will be like this for the entire run up to the May elections as Farage looks to turn his party from one governing a handful of councils in England to a serious party of government.

A leader always on the go

The Reform leader has already done about 40 campaign visits in recent weeks, and will do the same again in the run up to polling day on 7 May.

If the schedule sounds exhausting, Farage seems energised and upbeat as he settles into his seat and orders a gin and tonic.

He tells me campaigning is his favourite bit of the job as he chats with his team about the schedule for the week and the campaign.

Soon lunch comes - a charcuterie and cheese board and scotch eggs, washed down with a big glass of red wine.

This is a moment of relaxation for a leader always on the go, and I think about what a contrast Farage cuts to that of the prime minister, who I've watched from afar on flights, spending his time in meetings, going through his red box, looking at briefing notes or checking over a speech.

Farage does none of that as I sit opposite him on the plane, and he reminds me that he never writes a speech for these rallies.

Later he tells me he works off the "rule of three" - three different points he wants to make weaved into a speech. In the case of Scotland, his pitch is the failure of successive Scottish governments to deliver and what Reform could do for Scotland - be that expanding oil and gas production or cutting income tax.

I cannot quite believe I am even writing this, but Reform hopes to become the official opposition to the SNP in Holyrood in May and sees this election for the Scottish parliament as the first step to seriously competing for power in Scotland in five years' time.

It's astonishing they are in this position: at the last Holyrood elections, Reform didn't even register - winning no seats at all.

The latest YouGov poll for Sky News predicts Farage will take 20 seats in Scotland and eclipse the Conservatives to become the official opposition.

Reform aiming for 'seismic' wins

As in other parts of the country, Reform is benefitting from the collapsing support for Labour and the Conservatives. In Scotland, Labour had hoped to win Holyrood from the SNP after nearly two decades, but that prospect has collapsed in tandem with the drop in support for the Starmer government.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called for Keir Starmer's resignation earlier this year as he sought to salvage his campaign and create distance from the Westminster government.

Sarwar told me last month that he believed he could still win this election, but polling puts them third.

It is a similar story in Wales, where Labour has held power ever since the Senedd was created in 1999. Now they are battling Reform for second position as Plaid Cymru takes the lead.

Farage tells me he thinks that Reform can win the Welsh Parliament, which would be seismic: "Here in Scotland, to become the opposition would be amazing, absolutely amazing, and if we can embed ourselves there, we can move on in the years to come.

"In Wales, well, we're neck and neck right now with Plaid Cymru. The Labour Party, particularly in The Valleys - the real birthplace of the Labour Party - is almost disappearing off the map. So, to be frank, coming first in Wales is the ambition. Whether we can remains to be seen."

Some big issues to overcome

Farage tells me that he thinks the big story of these elections will be the collapse of Labour - across the Welsh Valleys, the red wall in the Midlands, the North East, the North West and in Scotland.

But Farage has his challenges too. While the insurgent party is benefiting from voters' disillusionment with the Conservatives and Labour, the sheen is coming off Reform a little of late.

Recent polls show Reform's support has fallen a few percentage points from highs of 29% to 30% in the spring and summer of 2025, while a poll earlier this month by Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft suggested Reform has lost its outright lead across the UK for the first time in more than a year, putting the party on 21% alongside the Tories and Greens, with Labour on 17%.

It is perhaps some of the pains of moving from a party of protest to becoming a party in power.

There are still big questions around delivery. Recent polling shows that only a quarter of Britons think Reform UK are ready to form the next government, while 58% disagree. This position has slightly worsened from September 2025, when 53% disagreed.

There are some big issues for the leader to overcome. First is his positioning on the Iran war and Donald Trump.

Pollster Luke Tryl says that the "biggest barrier to people voting for Reform is Trump", while the YouGov March tracker poll found that 14% of Britons had a favourable opinion of Donald Trump and 81% had an unfavourable opinion.

When I ask Farage if he has a Trump problem, he tells me "no". But he also spends some of our conversation distancing himself from his old friend while trying to avoid disavowing him: "It's America first, not Trump."

'We're not North Korea'

There is also the question of distancing at a more local level when it comes to delivering on the handful of English councils Reform controls (it has nine with outright control and three under minority control).

Farage gets irritated when he's questioned about promises made by some Reform candidates on council tax that were not kept.

He tells me he cannot be responsible for what potential candidates promised on leaflets, and points out that Reform councils have overall delivered the lowest average council tax increases of any major party.

The nine upper-tier councils controlled by a Reform majority increased Band D council tax for 2026/27 by an average of 3.94% - lower than the overall average increase for councils controlled by other parties, which was 4.86%.

However, it is equally true that Reform politicians made promises they did not keep.

North Northamptonshire candidates signed a letter pledging a freeze. Council tax there has gone up by 4.99%.

A Kent County Council leaflet promised to "cut your taxes", but it was raised by 3.99%.

Leaflets being distributed by a Reform candidate in the Staffordshire region said Reform would "freeze council tax and biz rates". Council tax went up by 3.99% there, too.

Farage answers this by saying: "We're not North Korea. I can't control individuals and thousands of people."

He repeats his point that he didn't promise cuts, but it raises questions about delivery and keeping promises - the exact points Farage and his team criticise other politicians about.

On the cusp of success

Should Reform win more councils and perhaps even a national parliament in May, those questions and that scrutiny is only going to increase.

Three months ago, Farage said he was halfway ready to form a government. On Monday he told me he was now 75% of the way there with a leader appointed in Scotland and Wales, and four major spokesperson figures.

He is now on the cusp of real success in a set of elections that look set to be an important staging post on Reform's journey towards trying to win the general election in 2029.

If it goes Farage's way, he'll have proven he can win at the ballot box - but delivering in office is going to be a much harder task, and test.

This interview is the first in a series that Beth Rigby will be conducting with party leaders ahead of the May elections.

(c) Sky News 2026: 'I can't control thousands of people': Farage irritated as he's questioned on promises Reform hasn't kept