Interview with Mark Arnull, Reform chairman Northants, at the West Northamptonshire Council count
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00:00Hi there, I'm Mark Arnold. I'm the Chairman of Northampton North Constituency Branch for Reform UK
00:05and the West Northamptonshire County Organiser for Reform UK. I'm also the candidate in Kingsort North.
00:10Lovely, thank you. Can you just tell me how the campaigning has gone in the lead-up to
00:16the election yesterday and the count today?
00:18Yeah, as I was going to say, you've got a lot of new faces entering politics here from a broad
00:22spectrum of the community that have joined our party, our movement and the candidacy.
00:28What you're seeing is people that are committed to change, they want to see the change, they listen
00:32to the residents, they go out on the streets and we've been working very hard for a number of months
00:36now, knocking doors, meeting voters, listening to what's going on and we think that's been spoken to
00:41us at the ballot box this time round. Okay, you mentioned that just at the end there,
00:47how are you feeling generally as a party in West Northamptonshire and what you think
00:51could potentially happen today? Well, you know, everyone woke up this morning to the news as the
00:56run-con by-election went and I think that gave us a renewed confidence. We've done so substantially
01:01well in some areas and also the good news with the Great Lincolnshire Mayor Contest with Andrea
01:06Jenkins getting into power with such a large majority. We are excited about what we can do
01:12in this county and this authority here. The candidates have worked really hard. We had a full slate of
01:16candidates at 76 for West Northamptons, also the 68 in North Northamptons as well. So it's been a cohesive
01:22drive to do what we're doing. And what do you think is that's made you kind of apart from the
01:32other parties this time that makes you think that you could be winning a few seats? I think if you
01:38move on from where the general election finished off in June last year, July last year, you saw the
01:44Labour Party only gain sort of 1.4, 1.6 percent of the vote share in terms of an increase. So it wasn't
01:50really a Labour win, but more of a Tory defeat. And if you look at how that translates over here in
01:56local elections, what we're seeing is the disenchantment with the national parties. Labour
02:00Party voters are saying in their droves that they're unhappy at their loss of the winter fuel
02:04allowance. Many other things the Labour Party is doing. They don't believe the Tory party is a
02:08solution and they seem to be finding their home with us. We've knocked the doorsteps. Myself,
02:13supposedly a thousand people in Kingstalk North over three months. I listened to everyone and we heard the
02:17same story again. I've given multiple interviews to the press and we hear the same things. Roads,
02:23fly tipping, things that matter to people. And I think where they connect with our candidates more
02:28than ever is that our candidates are real people from the same communities. And is there any wards
02:33in the Western Offense Authority that you're sort of targeting or that you're hoping to walk away with
02:38today? I might have to keep my powder dry on that question. All I have seen from the count from the
02:42verification this morning and my tellers looking at the tallies is that, you know, some of the areas
02:47are lending a little bit more surprise than maybe we thought. But we've campaigned heavily everywhere.
02:52You know, the leaflets have gone out, the canvases have gone out, the doors have been knocked in large
02:56numbers. And, you know, I think that now is coming out. The interesting, yesterday was such a hot day,
03:03but all our candidates were out on the streets, visiting the polling stations, doing the telling.
03:08And when it cooled off, there seemed to be a wave of people come for a walk
03:12out of their houses, down to the polling stations and cast their votes. And interestingly, in Kingsort,
03:16for example, I did see a wave of people solely for support for us.
03:20That's great. Thanks for your time.