Nigel Farage to visit Leeds tomorrow - as counter-protest planned
Nigel Farage is set to visit Leeds this week as part of Reform’s campaign ahead of the local elections in May.
The MP and leader of the party is heading to the city on Tuesday (March 24). He is set to hold a rally at the First Direct Arena from 7pm.
Leeds Stand Up To Racism will be holding a protest in the city the same day. The counter-rally will take place outside the venue from around 5pm.
Leeds for Europe also posted about the counter-protest. On Facebook they wrote: “Unfortunately he is coming to Leeds on Tuesday (24th March). Join the protest outside the Leeds Arena from 5:30pm and let him and his cronies know he is not welcome in our city…”
Residents in the city will be heading to the polls on May 7 in the latest city council election. Find out more here.
Council elections are set to take place every May through to 2029, when the next fallow year is currently scheduled.
On its website, Leeds City Council explains: “Every Leeds City Council ward is represented by 3 councillors who are each elected to serve a 4 year term. Their terms are staggered so that we only select one councillor in each local election.
“This system is called voting by thirds because a third of councillors are elected each year, over a 4 year cycle. Due to this, once every 4 years, there are no local elections. This is called a fallow year. The next fallow year in Leeds is 2029.”
The council continues: “In 2018 we elected 3 councillors in each ward. This is because the ward boundaries had been independently reviewed to reflect changes in population and ensure each ward contains a similar amount of electors.
“It is likely there won’t be another ward boundary review in Leeds for around 15 years.”
The deadline to do so for anyone not already registered is midnight on Monday, April 20.