Nigel Farage’s speech has now finished. The Reform UK leader went on to pose on stage with the party’s MPs and mayoral candidates.

The Reform UK leader criticised changes to the non-dom tax status amid reports the seventh richest person in the UK, Lakshmi Mittal, is to leave.

Nigel Farage said: “We cannot help those on lower incomes, we cannot help those that need to access public services, if we get rid of those that pay the most tax because they leave and go to Monaco, Dubai, America, or wherever else it is. We need to be grown-up.

“We need to encourage people who have got money to come and live here and pay tax and subsidise our public services. Let’s think about this. Let’s use our brains.”

He added: “Of course, the media will say, how will you pay for this? Well, I tell you what we need: some pretty big cuts in the administrative state in this country which has grown out of all proportion.”

The Reform leader continued: “Frankly folks, what we need in this country to pay for the cuts that people deserve and need, we need a British form of Doge, as Elon Musk has got in America. Let’s have a British Doge.”

Nigel Farage prompted boos from the audience when he brought up how Labour “cruelly” stripped OAPs on modest incomes of the winter fuel allowance.

He said: “There are millions of people of above pensionable age in our country, many of whom have worked for this country, served this country in the armed forces or elsewhere, who because they’ve got a small private pension pot, have cruelly had their winter fuel allowance taken away.

“A Reform government would give them back their winter fuel allowance.”

The Reform UK leader said: “We will cut taxes. Nobody that earns less than £20,000 a year should pay any income tax whatsoever.

“We are on the side of the worker, we’re on the side of working people, we want to incentivise those on benefits to get off benefits and go back to work.”

He also vowed to scrap inheritance tax “once and for all”.

“A Reform government will leave the European Court of Human Rights,” Nigel Farage said.

At the Reform launch event, he added: “We will get rid of the Human Rights Act upon which British lefty judges depend.”

Mr Farage continued: “I will reiterate, nobody that comes into our country on the back of a lorry or via a boat will ever be given refugee status, will ever be given leave to remain.

“It is unfair. It is wrong. It is also deeply unfair to those who have come here legally, and that’s worth thinking about, and let me tell you, everyone that comes illegally will be deported, full stop.”

After a standing ovation and chants of “Nigel”, the party leader claimed “foreign criminals” would also be deported.

Nigel Farage said: “It could be that we’re even luckier with our Labour opponents.

“Do you remember the big promises? Vote for us, energy bills will be reduced by £300 a year and yet from next week energy bills will have increased by £300 since Labour came to power.

“They told us they were on the side of business yet, and this is truly incredible, not one of the 25 men and women that serve in this Labour Cabinet has ever founded a private company, not one of them has ever worked in business.”

He went on: “This country is getting poorer, Labour have absolutely no clue, no idea, how to deal with it.”

The Reform UK leader said: “In life it’s quite important to be lucky with your opponents. Napoleon once said ‘don’t give me good generals, give me lucky generals’.

“Well right at the minute I feel like a lucky general because we have a Conservative Party, or we used to have a Conservative Party, who for 14 years gave us the highest tax burden that had been seen since the war, who told us they’d use those Brexit freedoms to reduce numbers coming in and to stop unskilled migration happening on the level that it was.

“We got the greatest betrayal of a massive democratic majority that we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes.

“I believe the Conservative Party should never, ever be forgiven for that level of betrayal.”

Nigel Farage touched on why he made his bombshell political comeback ahead of last July’s general election.

He told the audience: “I came back into this because I genuinely believe that if we don’t arrest the level of economic and societal decline that we are rapidly going into that within a few years this country won’t even resemble anything that we’ve grown up with, that we love and we’re happy to share with others.”

Nigel Farage told the rally: “This must be the most ambitious launch of any election campaign.”

He said that potholes are the “perfect symbol for broken Britain”.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage entered for his speech at Reform UK’s election launch on a JCB vehicle.

Reform MP Lee Anderson said there is “no such thing as Islamophobia” and that it is a “made-up word”.

Mr Anderson told the rally that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner “keeps banging on about Islamophobia”.

He went on: “There’s no such thing as Islamophobia, it’s a made-up word.”

Lee Anderson tore into Labour ministers including Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

The outspoken Reform MP said: “Look at some of the politicians we’ve got running our country at the moment. We have a public health minister who thinks it’s ok to identify as a llama.

“We’ve got Rachel from accounts. Her CV looks like it was written by Walter Mitty.

“We’ve got the unhinged mad Miliband who is literally putting up energy prices while telling everybody that our bills are coming down. This man could not lie straight in bed.

“We’ve got a business secretary who says he was a solicitor but he’s never qualified as a solicitor.

“And don’t start me on David Lammy, we’re not going there tonight I’ll tell you that.”

Lee Anderson told the crowd: “I’ve got one thing to say to you, I want my country back.

“I want a country where people can book a same day GP appointment, they can book a dental appointment, they can feel safe on our streets, they can be confident that our borders are safe, they don’t have to worry about paying for their fuel bills, they should not be scared to speak their minds.

“And finally I want to live in a country where kids can go to school and not be told they could be 72 different genders and be told constantly they may have been born in the wrong body. This nonsense must stop.”

Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, wearing a “Make Britain Great Again” cap, walked on stage to the football chant “Here We Go”.

He prompted laughter and cheers from the audience as he began his speech off with a swipe at protesters who gathered outside the rally.

The Reform MP said: “Get a life, get a job and get a bath.”

Dame Andrea Jenkyns has taken to the stage at the Reform rally.

The ex-Tory minister is standing as the party’s mayoral candidate for Greater Lincolnshire.

She opened her speech by saying: “We’re united because everyone here, we’re all trying to save our country. Reform will save Britain and Nigel will be Prime Minister.”

While Tice is taking aim at council waste, of Tory and Labour council he says: “The truth is…”

One audience heckler shouts: “They’re all robbing b*****ds!”

Tice lets out a big laugh.

He asks: “How is we seem to be spending ever more council tax, and yet the potholes grow, the bins are collected less… it’s a catastrophe.”

“The truth is the Tories broke Britain, and Labour is in the process of bankrupting Britain.”

He warns: “We will go bust, and the markets responded very badly to Rachel’s spring statement.”

He suggests Britain needs a county-by-county DOGE-style waste cutting programme.

After taking aim at the OBR’s poor forecasting record, he takes aim at “Net Stupid Zero”.

The Reform deputy leader says we’re already seeing the destruction Net Zero is doing to Britain’s jobs and industry.

He points to the steel industry in Britain, with thousands of job losses in Port Talbot and Scunthorpe.

“The Chinese might be giving up on British steel but the British people do not want to give up on British steel.

He calls for the public sector to buy British steel.

Richard Tice quips: “We have a Baldrick-like cunning plan to win the next general election”.

He asks: “How many people do we think the LibDems could get to a political event?”

“‘Never here Keir’ would be having his rally in Mauritius!”

Richard Tice is finally up for his big speech and will outline the party’s local election strategy.

Dr David Bull says: “The pathway to government is for Reform to do exceptionally well in the local elections.”

Bull promises that as they take control of local government they will carry out “root and branch” reform.

Potholes and the restoration of the high street is also high up on the agenda.

He explains that Reform must show they can do well in local government in order to prove to voters they can succeed at national government level.

He asks: “What have voters got to lose?”

Reform’s David Bull has just paused his speech to announce that Reform has just passed 200,000 members.

He got a huge cheer from the audience, as a graphic popped up on the digital display showcasing the huge moment.

Former UKIP donor Arron Banks has announced he’s Reform’s candidate for West of England Mayor.

He was a massive political figure during the Brexit referendum but had previously kept his distance from Reform. This is a major political comeback and the first major surprise of the evening.

Reform MPs Richard Tice and James McMurdoch as waiting at the bus stop.

Former GB News star and Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes is in the VIP area of today’s reform rally, after he announced his candidacy in the Durham council election.

Durham, along with Doncaster, is one of Reform’s top target councils, with polls suggesting Farage’s party may win overall control. Mr Grimes himself says he’s feeling confident about his own chances.

Reform’s rally appears to have been delayed after being expected to start at 6.30pm.

Dr David Bull was meant to be doing a warm up at 6.30pm, but that’s yet to happen. Richard Tice’s spot is now also five minutes late.

Things are now earmarked to begin at 7.30pm – an hour after originally planned.

Here’s the aformentioned behind the scenes glance at Reform’s local election rally. It truly is like political Disneyland in Birmingham’s biggest arena.

I’ve just been speaking to a senior Reform source who has claimed Nigel Farage’s speech will be ‘like nothing you’ve ever seen before’.

I couldn’t get many details, but here’s something very interesting – Nigel Farage is set to have some of his speech actually written down.

For those who follow Farage, they’ll know just how rare it will be to see the party leader following a script!

Nigel Farage is set to pledge a major crackdown in local government waste, as one of the party’s main local election manifesto pledges.

Above the audience here in Birmingham is an enormous cuboid LCD display, featuring a rolling ticker showing each council CEO’s eye-watering salaries.

These include: Cambridgeshire £190,000; Leicestershire £220,000; and Warwickshire £207,000.

When I met Nigel’s candidate for the Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire earlier this week, Luke Campbell, he is also pledging to make major Elon Musk-style cuts to local government.

I asked him at a press conference some weeks ago what to expect from his local election manifesto, and he told us to stay tuned.

He revealed Reform has been submitting hundreds of freedom of information requests (FOIs), presumably into wasteful council spending.

Nigel Farage shared a video on X walking around the stage set ahead of the rally.

He said: “It’s remarkable what’s happening here. There’s no doubt going around looking at the stage set, looking at all the props, that this is going to be the most ambitious of a local election campaign, nay any election campaign, I would say ever in our political history.”

I’ve only wandered around for a couple of minutes and already I’ve spotted some well-known faces.

Lee Anderson and James McMurdoch, two of the party’s MPs, were just loitering around chatting to members. James tells me he’s not got a speech but will be in the ‘overflowing bin’ section of the main floor – the glamourous life of a Reform MP.

I’ve also spotted Arron Banks, a long-time funder and support of Nigel Farage who helped lead the Leave.EU campaign during the Brexit referendum.

Paul Nuttal, Nigel’s deputy during his UKIP days, is also here.

No doubt some more surprises will crop up over the coming hours.

Around a dozen Remainer protesters have taken to the streets outside the Utilita Arena Birmingham ahead of the rally.

The group waved blue and gold EU flags as they held the small anti-Brexit demonstration.

I’ve just been given a behind-the-scenes tour of the Reform UK local election launch rally, and it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before at any rally, let alone a local election event.

The venue, with 10,000 bums set be sat on seats shortly, has been transformed into a sort of ‘Local Election Disney Land’.

The main floor has been filled with a political set nothing short of Hollywood.

There are overflowing bins, graffiti bus stops, pothole-covered roads, a boarded-up pub, and shop fronts.

Each set has dozens of little easter eggs which will almost certainly not be picked up by TV cameras, but have been slipped in purely for the amusement of the Reform UK organisers.

Amid the overflowing bins are props including Rachel Reeves’ crumpled-up CV, torn up Tory manifestos, and Lee Anderson’s infamous discarded TV Licence letter.

The ‘cinema’ has film parody posters taking aim at the Tories and Reform.

Even the phone number on the boarded-up pub’s ‘to let’ sign (Broke Britain Property Ltd) directs those who give it a call to the Labour Party’s main help line, presumably to clog up their phone operators.

It really sets the scene for Reform’s message, and their new slogan is imprinted across the room:

“Your council is broken. Reform will fix it.”

This really is a political event worth staying tuned for…

Nigel Farage insisted Reform is heading into the local elections in May “with a very upbeat agenda”.

The party suffered a split earlier this month with the ousting of Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe after he questioned Mr Farage’s leadership in an interview.

Mr Lowe was subsequently suspended over allegations of office bulling and claims of verbal threats against party chairman Zia Yusuf, which he strongly denies.

Ahead of the rally, Mr Farage told the BBC his party “might have had a problem with one MP” but would go into the local elections on May 1 “with a very upbeat agenda”.

He said: “We are going to point out to people the extent to which local government is broken in Britain and why it needs new people.”

Nigel Farage is set to launch Reform UK’s local election campaign at an event in Birmingham tonight.

The party has described it as “the biggest ever launch rally in modern British political history”, with 10,000 tickets said to have been sold.

Speakers include Reform leader Mr Farage, party chairman Zia Yusuf, deputy leader Richard Tice and MP Lee Anderson.

Guests had already begun queuing hours before the rally, which is due to start at 6.30pm.