Nigel Farage lashes out at “cycle lanes that no one uses”, accusing councils facing bankruptcy of wasting “tens of millions” on cycling infrastructure

Nigel Farage has criticised local councils “on the verge of bankruptcy” for wasting “tens of millions” of pounds on “cycle lanes that no one uses”, ahead of the May 2025 local elections.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, the Leader of Reform UK said local authorities were prioritising projects such as bike lanes and climate departments over essential services, accusing them of mismanaging public funds.

“You look at where they spend the money — tens of millions being spent on cycle lanes that no one uses, huge departments of people dealing with climate change, but all people really want are proper, well-run local services,” he said.

The Clacton MP made the comments as part of his wider critique of local government ahead of the upcoming elections, where Reform UK is standing candidates across England in mayoral contests as well as contesting for seats in several councils, a recent Guardian report also indicating that over 60 of its candidates are Tory defectors. 

> Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party to target pro-cycling councils in next year’s local elections

He claimed that most councils were “on the verge of bankruptcy,” and accused senior staff of awarding themselves “ever-increasing sums of money” while basic services such as road maintenance and adult social care were under strain.

“It’s local government they’re voting for. Of course, it’s very important for our roads, dealing with potholes, adult social care, children with educational needs problems… So these elections do really matter,” he said.

Reform UK has seen a boost in national polling in recent months, and Farage said the party’s focus now was turning those figures into tangible results.

“Our poll ratings are roughly double what they were at the general election last year,” he said. “If we do that [win seats], then people will say, ‘You know what? The rise of Reform is real. They are now a major party, and they are now the major challenger to the Labour government.’”

Farage’s criticism of cycle lanes is not new. In 2020, he pledged to stand against what he described as “pro-cycling” local councils in the following year’s local elections.

At the time, Farage’s then-policy adviser Ben Habib singled out the then-Conservative-led Wandsworth Council as “anti-motorist” for introducing temporary active travel measures during the Covid-19 pandemic. The party claimed such schemes were contributing to increased congestion and harming local businesses.

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While Reform ultimately fielded very few candidates in the 2021 elections, the strategy signalled the start of an ongoing campaign against what it portrays as “anti-car” policies being pursued by councils across the country.

In a series of newspaper columns in 2020, Farage had also described the temporary cycle lanes and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) as “madness,” accusing the government of “virtue signalling” and claiming that the infrastructure lay unused while contributing to traffic congestion and pollution.

“The volume of cyclists using many of the new cycle lanes is … so low that they cannot be justified,” he wrote in The Sunday Telegraph at the time. “In far too many cases, all the lanes and road closures have succeeded in doing is causing traffic jams.”

He vowed: “My new party will stand candidates against any and every local councillor who backs these new cycle lanes and road closures.”

> Nigel Farage forges new career as anti-cycling bingo caller

That campaign came amid a wider politicisation of active travel infrastructure, with then-Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey also pledging to suspend LTNs in London if elected, and accusing then-Mayor Sadiq Khan of mismanaging Transport for London’s finances.

Farage had also penned an article for the Mail in 2020, essentially broadcasting his rage towards cyclists and cycling infrastructure, making use of pretty much every tired, old and incorrect cliché — also known as the anti-cycling bingo — such as cyclists not paying road tax and ignoring traffic rules, cycle lanes killing businesses and depriving hard-working motorists of their means of transport, and even heralding the “war on motorists” being waged by the “cycle lobby”.

In 2021, the former leader of the UK Independence Party once again complained about cycle lanes, taking to Twitter to share a video of an ambulance stuck in a gridlock next to a bike lane in London, writing: “This is totally insane. These cycle lanes are a joke.”