UNION membership has spiked in Reform-run councils following the May elections, new figures revealed today.

GMB reported an uptick in membership in Durham, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Doncaster.

Nigel Farage’s party said that it would prioritise cutting waste at local level by reducing waste and doing away with diversity programmes after winning overall control in 10 councils last month.

GMB national officer Rachel Harrison said: “Reform spouts a lot of nonsense about being on the side of workers, but these figures show people aren’t buying it.

“Workers in Reform-led councils are flocking to join unions because they know the first thing Farage and his cronies will do is attack low-paid staff’s terms and conditions.”

GMB general secretary Gary Smith slammed Reform’s “sneering, snooty attitude about so-called ‘gold-plated’ pensions” as he addressed the union’s annual congress in Brighton on Sunday.

Reform announced last week that it would send a team reminiscent of the United States Department of Government Efficiency into local authorities to tackle “wasteful spending.”

But the latest council accounts show that it will be “very difficult for Reform councillors to find excessive waste in local authority spending, associate director at the Institute for Government think tank Stuart Hoddinott has warned.

The accounts for Reform-controlled authorities show that between 51 and 78 per cent of council expenditure was spent on adult and children’s social care and homelessness last year, PoliticsHome analysis revealed.

Reform insisted: “We still believe that money can be saved through measures such as revisiting or cancelling contracts that do not deliver value for money, ending expenditure on vanity projects or reducing the amount spent on external consultants.”