Reform Diverts Manchester Campaign to Back Farage's Clacton Bid

Reform UK ordered activists in northwest England to stop campaigning for a Greater Manchester mayoral race and focus instead on Nigel Farage's Clacton seat contest on 6 August. The shift abandons a race Reform had targeted seriously after winning 106 council seats regionally in May. An internal councillor saw it as a sign the party was "desperate" to support Farage and doubted it could win Manchester alone.