Countdown legend Carol sat down with the Mirror for a no holds barred conversation about the upcoming local elections – and both Reform and leader Nigel Farage were in the firing line
Maths guru Carol Vorderman says Reform UK will add nothing, divide the nation and multiply our council tax bills if they win more power in Thursday’s local elections. The Countdown favourite urged people not to vote for Nigel Farage’s party, accusing them of lies, hypocrisy and trading off false promises. She said: “I absolutely loathe Reform. I loathe them to the very cell of my being. All they want is division. And they lie. The scale of the hypocrisy is insurmountable. They say, ‘We are the party of the working people’, but I couldn’t think of any party, even the Conservatives, that are worse than them.” And of Farage, she added: “He’s just so thin-skinned. But people are beginning to see him for who he is.”
Carol, 65, who was appointed an MBE in 2000 for services to broadcasting, says Reform have already misled voters by raising council tax in councils they won last year, when candidates in some areas promised to freeze or cut the rate. In May 2025, local elections were held in 23 of England’s councils. Reform UK won the largest number of seats with 677 – amounting to 41% of all seats up for election.
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The following month, Farage launched a Reform Department of Government Efficiency, inspired by tech billionaire Elon Musk, to audit and cut “wasteful” spending in local councils. But Carol said: “They’ve had to put up council tax in every single council. In Worcestershire one went up by 9%.
“It’s all lies. And people have seen that, and they’ve seen, actually, all these promises are a load of rubbish. The best thing that happened for this country was that they won 12 councils in last year’s elections, because they were promising ‘we’re going to cut tax.’ Then they launched Doge, which fizzled out, because they haven’t saved any money anywhere, and nobody mentions it anymore.”
Carol, who has presented The Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards since 1999, found fame through her maths prowess on Channel 4 game show Countdown. A King’s Trust ambassador, known for her forthright political views, Carol urges people to head to the ballot box on May 7, when a number of mayoral and local council seats will be up for election in England. Voters in Scotland and Wales will elect representatives to their parliaments.
She said: “This is my belief: Reform won 41% of the local elections last year, and it was all based on promise and fluff – lies to working class people, and I can’t forgive them for that. I think that about 8% will always vote for them, a bit like the Magas in Trump’s America. They like Farage because he’s always talking about migrants and their sensitivities are that they just don’t want people of colour living anywhere near them. But not all Reform voters are like that.
“You have other people who are just pissed off with our system, as am I. As are most of us. We’re all p***ed off with it. But people are seeing now that Farage is not the Messiah, he’s not going to change anything. He is just going to make it even worse. The numbers will fall and I reckon before the general election they’ll be at like 12% and all those billionaires will have wasted their money.”
Her condemnation of money wasting billionaires refers to Christopher Harborne, who donated a record £9 million to Reform in 2025 and a further £3 million in March this year. The billionaire has donated £22m to Reform over seven years – accounting for two thirds of all funding received. Last month, the Thailand-based businessman claimed he was the reason the government has announced a £100K cap on donations from British citizens living overseas.
Asking why billionaires are suddenly becoming interested in British politics, Carol asked: “Is it because they really care what’s happening to somebody in Warrington? No, they don’t.” With an opinion poll showing just 29% of British adults to be satisfied with how Nigel Farage is doing his job as leader of Reform, Carol – speaking from her hometown of Bristol – feels the public now see through him.
The mother-of-two also feels his much-hyped friendship with US President Donald Trump is now backfiring. She said: “Trump is hugely loathed in this country. Farage is hugely loathed. He’s actually loathed by two-thirds of the population. People see him for what he is. The worse that we’ve seen Trump become, the worse it is for Farage. That has had a huge effect. I think that we have seen the transition of the far right, we’ve seen their peak.”
Most people in the UK, she says, want real change, not division. She continued: “Most people in this country are good hearted. They’re not racist bigots. They are not nasty people.” And as Trump’s popularity wanes in the US, she is hopeful Farage’s will diminish in tandem. She says: “I am very hopeful, because in America’s latest local elections, Democrats are wiping the floor.”
Also no fan of Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, Carol wants her to stay in post: “I hope she stays as leader because she’s rubbish. She’s absolutely rubbish, just aggressive, without any charm whatsoever.” Previously stating that she “wouldn’t say no,” to entering politics herself, as an Independent, Carol is a keen supporter of mandatory voting.
She said: “In most Western countries, most people are pretty centred. You might go a bit left, you might go a bit right. Because we don’t have mandatory voting, we have low turnouts, and that plays into the hands of the right wing. In Australia, you never get extreme left or extreme right, because of mandatory voting. The best we can do is to persuade people to come out and vote. But I think it’s critical this time. “
Determined to rally women voters, she continued: “Every woman needs to get off her arse and get to the polling booth. Or, if you’re going to vote anyway, offer to give people a lift. Or offer to help. Or get your postal vote. Check everyone in your house. Check everyone at work has registered. People have to get off their arses and do something this time..”
A Reform source said: “Carol Vorderman spent the last election cheering on a Labour landslide which ushered in the most disastrous government in living memory. Forgive us if we don’t take lectures on political judgement from her.”
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