Frost said Reform UK’s Cornwall candidates mainly campaigned on immigration.
This was echoed in conversations with other local party leaders across the country.
The BBC was told Reform’s candidates had little local policy to offer and mostly focused on national issues, such as stopping small boats crossing the English Channel.
Slashing “wasteful spending” by councils, like Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in the US, was also a common campaign theme.
In Worcestershire, where Reform won the most seats but fell short of a majority, the party’s supposed lack of local policy was a major sticking point for the Conservatives.
“They haven’t got a local prospectus and that was part of the problem,” said Adam Kent, Tory group leader on Worcestershire County Council.
“They didn’t stand on any local issues. It was on national politics. How can you go into coalition with somebody if you don’t even know what they stand for?”
Joanne Monk, the Reform UK council leader in the county, said she only had “a brief couple of chats” with other party leaders but was uncompromising on coalitions.
“I’m damned sure we’re not on the same wavelength,” she said.
She followed the lead of Farage, who ruled out formal coalitions at council level but said “in the interests of local people we’ll do deals”, in comments ahead of the local elections.
In Worcestershire, Reform UK’s minority administration may need to do deals to pass key decisions and avoid other parties banding together to veto their plans.
Recognising this, she acknowledged other parties were “going to have to work with us at some point”.
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