“That does show the professionalisation of the party”

What Steven asked Cllr David Finch, leader of the Reform Group on Medway Council

Reform’s David Finch was elected as a councillor for Rochester East and Warren Wood following a by-election in February. Steven met Cllr Finch at the Ship and Trades pub, and they spoke about why he stood for election for Reform, why independent councillor Chris Spalding is not part of the group, whether Reform is a racist party, and more.

Cllr David Finch.

What ward are you the councillor for?
Rochester East and Warren Wood.

Why that ward?
Because the by-election came up, and we had candidates willing to come and stand for us. I was part of the Rochester and Strood branch, and still am. It just went without saying that if by-elections come up, we need to stand, we need to get out there.

You don't live in the ward yourself?
No, I don't. I live just outside in Cuxton. It's not too far away. Rochester is my local town. I love it down there. If that's where the by-election is, that's where the by-election is.

What political parties have you been a member of?
Reform UK, that's it. Nothing else.

Why did you decide to join Reform?
I saw how the country was going, I saw how the uniparty was operating. Reform offered something different, and it still does.

What is that difference that you saw?
The difference is not being the uniparty. They had common sense policies, they still have. Common sense policies like the £20,000 before you pay tax. I think that's a fantastic idea. Gets lots of people out of the tax brackets early on, gives them more money in their pockets. It was Nigel being a leader as well. Having a businessman actually running a party. That's what first grabbed me. Being a contractor myself, he was coming out with policies as well for IR35, expanding that.

What's IR35?
IR35 is where, as a business, we were running a limited company, but as a contractor, it would just be me working for the company, but we had all the outgoings of a proper company, like accountancy fees, employers, employees, national insurance. We were paying double for everything basically, and all the corporation tax and everything else on top. There was a slight benefit that we could buy things from our own company, but they would go down as assets and be taken off their accounts as normal. But it just worked out better for us to be a limited company, and Nigel said he was going to scrap it. That was back in 2019. That's probably around the area that I got interested in Reform UK.

Have you ever considered joining another party before?
No, never. I've always been interested in politics, but I've never gone that far. I’ve always been an armchair politician.

Was there a particular moment that made you decide to get out of the armchair?
I think it was the covid era. That all brought everything to a head for me. They're making stupid decisions, they're wasting so much money. What's behind all that? Why are they doing it all in lockstep? I started investigating it there and all that money was just being wasted on nothing. All those personal contracts that they're giving away for PPE. It just seemed the whole system was corrupt from top to bottom. That kicked me up the bum. That's when I started thinking about it. I hadn't thought about it until I moved into Cuxton in ‘21. It was around that time. Moving into Cuxton, Rochester and Strood, the branch was there already. We didn't have one where I used to live in Greenwich. It was already set up and ready to go, one of the first ones. I heard about that and jumped on.