A Reform UK candidate has slammed a Labour-run council after the authority was discovered to have splashed £30,000 of taxpayers’ cash on helping migrants’ mental health.
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has insisted it “cannot afford” to hold polls slated for May 7 and was granted permission to postpone the elections until 2027.
However, the authority has managed the scrape enough cash together for an asylum seeker mental health and trauma project.
Awarded back in January 2024, a contract offered up the eye-watering sum to a local university to “develop a project focusing on trauma within the asylum community in Blackburn with Darwen”.
But deputy chairwoman of Reform UK’s Blackburn branch Helen Voegt slammed the move from the authority, delivering a scathing rant on GB News.
Speaking to a similarly aghast Martin Daubney, she fumed: “I believe this money is going to what we call sanctuary scholarships to a university.
“These people are getting bursaries of £9,000 going towards home fees and living costs.
“Now, what about our people in Blackburn, Martin, in Blackburn? At the moment, we have people living in tents in Blackburn city centre.
Ms Voegt was fuming over the news
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“We have people living in tents. Last week it was -4.5C. In Blackburn we had 50-mile-an-hour winds. The rain was ice, you know that type that goes right into your bones and these people are living in tents.
“Would they like £9,000? Of course they would. Why aren’t we helping our own people?
“Why aren’t we helping the people of Blackburn? Let’s ask the people of Blackburn. Would you like this money to go to asylum seekers? Would you like it to go to illegal immigrants?
“But what can we do? Can we ask the people? No, we can’t because Blackburn borough councillors have cancelled the elections,” she fumed.
‘What about our people?’ Ms Voegt fumed
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The deputy chair urged the authority to “let the electorate decide”, as one of the hopeful candidates who was looking towards standing in May.
All 51 councillors voted down holding elections, spurring Ms Voegt to ask: “Now, why is that? It’s not because of the money, Martin. It’s not because of local government reorganisation.
“It’s because they know that Reform is coming. There is a Reform wave. It’s coming up to the north. It’s here in the north.
“And the councillors know that if the elections go ahead this may, many of them will lose their seats.”
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice told The Telegraph: “Local elections are being cancelled while council staff are funding mental-health projects for illegal migrants who have invaded our country. The British people are rightly furious.”
The council is one of the 29 local authorities to have postponed polls until next year.
The move has spurred on cross-party fury, with Reform taking legal action against the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to challenge the democratic delay.
The party has accused Labour of “running scared” of the electorate in the face of Nigel Farage’s local success.
A two-day hearing will take place in February.