Resignations, Cancelled Meetings and Culture Wars: How Reform UK Councils Are Descending Into Chaos

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After the election counts finished and the camera crews headed home, Reform UK councillors – over 800 of them now, running 12 councils – had to grapple with a new question: ‘What are we going to do now?’

Now that question is starting to be answered. 

We’ve dug through local news coverage and talked to local constituents and opposition councillors on the ground to figure out what the new Reform councils have been up to. It’s not been smooth sailing, to say the least.

Across England there have been stories of cancelled meetings, suspensions, resignations, and more than a few culture wars.

Here’s just Reform’s local councillors have been getting up to since May 1st. It’s not been smooth running.

Kent County Council

Kent County Council has received the most attention of the 12 Reform-run local authorities in England, in no small part due to it being the flagbearer for Reform’s ‘DOGE’ team of party activists and ostensible experts, sent in to audit the council’s finances. 

However, despite promises of newfound efficiency, it already seems to be experiencing a severe case of dysfunction.

As Byline Times first reported, all committee meetings scheduled for June were cancelled by the new administration, with some Reform members reportedly requesting that July meetings also be rearranged because they cannot attend those either.

Opposition councillors describe the council’s performance under Reform decision-makers as both slow and chaotic. 

A Kent resident got in touch with Byline Times to share their thoughts: “The overwhelming sense I get since the Council elections is…. silence. We’ve heard nothing from our elected Councillor, we’ve seen very little in the press other than a few bits on Kent Online…and those articles you’ve published.

“The huge fanfare over the “DOGE” team and that appalling letter from Reform Ltd telling staff to cooperate or else, then the resignations of half the team has been followed by….. nothing much at all.

“Cancelled Council meetings and collapsed “DOGE” but no new policies, no innovation, no massive (imaginary) savings. Nothing. Are they out of their depth?” Probably. 

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The council leader responded to criticism so far by, according to opponents, going on holiday. 

East Thanet Labour MP Polly Billington has been watching the council closely. She said: “Reform say they can’t hold key meetings because cabinet members are being trained, but now there are reports the new council leader has gone on holiday and Reform seem reluctant to explain what is going on. There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation, but the people of Kent shouldn’t be kept in the dark.”

A Reform councillor there has already been suspended by the party over allegations that are now “with the police”. So that’s all going well. 

As another Kent reader put it: “We’ll probably be under special measures by Christmas.”

A plethora of postponed and cancelled Kent Council Meetings in June: 

Derbyshire County Council

One Reform council that has got to work quickly is Derbyshire County Council. Though residents would probably prefer the new leader obsessed over flags instead, in this case. 

Last week the BBC reported that Reform planned to close a swathe of adult education centres. 

“Learning centres such as the Eco Centre in Wirksworth, and centres in Alfreton, Ashbourne, Matlock, Shirebrook, Long Eaton and the Toolbox in Glossop will cease to offer adult education courses at the end of July,” according to the BBC report of the council. 

The new administration has also refused to commit to installing sprinklers in Derbyshire schools, reversing a pledge from the previous administration. “Harrington Junior School in Long Eaton was destroyed by a fire in May 2020, with no sprinklers installed to prevent the total loss of the building,” the Derbyshire Times reports ominously.

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Leicestershire County Council

Leicestershire County Council got to work with Reform’s priorities on taking office, with the new administration’s first action being scrapping the authority’s established flag flying policy in their first cabinet meeting and replacing it with “British values” flag rules. That means no more Pride or Ukraine flags on council-owned buildings. 

The new team has also attracted criticism for placing inexperienced councillors in senior positions – with a 19-year-old Reform councillor who has said he doesn’t believe depression is real being put in charge of a multi-million pound health budget. 

Another Reform councillor, aged 22, has been placed in charge of children’s and adult services, prompting social workers to raise serious concerns about the “clash of values and lack of experience” among the new leadership, according to industry title Professional Social Work.

Worcestershire County Council

Worcestershire County Council’s new Reform leader Jo Monk stirred controversy by suggesting that councillors who are too ill to attend meetings should resign…despite having attended just over 50% of meetings herself since taking office. 

And a local Reform team had to apologise for making false claims about savings. Reform in Redditch (in Worcestershire) initially claimed they had saved taxpayers £46,000 by having one fewer cabinet member than the previous administration. When Byline Times approached the council to ask if that was true, they replied diplomatically: “There were 10 Cabinet members previously (including the Leader) and 10 Cabinet members now (including the Leader).” 

In other words, it was untrue. 

Staffordshire County Council

Local sources in Staffordshire tell Byline Times that Reform councillors are largely keeping low profiles, requesting briefing reports and contracts but making few policy announcements.

The council lost Reform councillor Wayne Titley within two weeks of the election after he posted on Facebook calling for the navy to intercept migrant boats with a “volley of gunfire” to sink them. 

Another Reform councillor, Barry Martin, posted on Facebook after attending his first council meeting, asking constituents if he should resign because he found the proceedings “dull and boring.” 

Nottinghamshire County Council

Nottinghamshire County Council has, like Kent, been cancelling meetings under Reform control, leaving staff in limbo while the new administration develops their policies. 

Local media report that Reform councillors have provided minimal input to council proceedings, with significantly fewer meetings being held compared to previous months under the previous Conservative control.

Durham County Council

Durham County Council has seen two Reform councillors head for the exit within barely a month of the local elections. 

Councillor John Bailey resigned citing health issues. Locals suspect the serious health problems were an issue prior to polling day, suggesting he may have been a paper candidate. Two county councillors so far do not appear to have submitted photos of themselves – both are from Reform. 

And just five out of 63 Reform councillors on Durham CC appear to have filed their Register of Interests. 

The law is clear: “When you are first elected, co-opted, or appointed a member to your council or authority, you must, within 28 days of becoming a member, tell the monitoring officer who is responsible for your council’s or authority’s register of members’ interests about your disclosable pecuniary interests.” What’s going on? 

Another Reform councillor, Andrew Kilburn (Benfieldside) was forced to stand down after failing to declare his council employment. It is against the rules to work for the council and run for election to it at the same time. 

And now Brexiteer Darren Grimes claims he faces suspension for refusing to participate in voluntary “DEI” (diversity, equality and inclusion) and “net zero” training. Grimes famously received payments totalling £675,315.18, for anti-EU spending in the 2016 referendum. (He was cleared of wrongdoing over the payments by the Electoral Commission, on appeal in 2018).  

We asked Durham County Council if Grimes’ supposed suspension is actually true, given that voluntary training is just that…voluntary. We’ve not had a response yet.

But Reform controls six of the nine seats on the standards committee which would decide on any suspension, including holding the positions of chair and vice chair. 

Lincolnshire County Council

The Conservatives are turning their fire on Reform in Lincolnshire – hitting out at Reform for being “disorganised and unprofessional”.

Lincolnshire Conservatives shared this: “On Monday, 9th June, the Lincolnshire County Council Planning Committee met to consider several significant matters, including the proposed Springwell Solar Farm—a vast 800MW development that, if approved, would cover approximately 1,280 hectares in North Kesteven.

“Despite the importance of this meeting for thousands of Lincolnshire residents, not a single Reform UK councillor—aside from the chairman—contributed to the discussion.”

A Lib Dem councillor in Lincolnshire told Byline Times: “The Chairman of planning [committee] essentially said his group were too inexperienced and under-prepared to vote in a solar farm application. The leader even came in for the final few minutes. Painful viewing.” 

West Northamptonshire Council

A council staffer gets in touch, saying many of Reform’s actions in power in West Northants seem to be about opposing rainbows. 

“The flag ban came into operation with an updated protocol being published. There were a lot of negative comments on the Teams channel especially as it coincided with the start of pride month. 

“Staff were obviously concerned with the impact on our outward projection of diversity…The ability to add further comments was removed after 24 hours.”

And then, at the start of June, Reform appeared to go after email signatures. 

“They sent out an edict on how our email signatures should look which appears to mainly focus on removing the rainbow colours from the graphic that we must display. Not everyone chose the rainbow style but it was an option…not anymore,” the source added.

Council chief passes on an edict from Reform bosses:

Which means this popular signature on WNC is ‘banned’:

Prodigal ex-Reform chair and DOGE bod Zia Yusuf turned up last Friday (13th June) to sniff around the council, one of our snouts there informs us.

The only ‘major’ saving apparently identified so far is reducing access to Microsoft’s software suite for some council staff who don’t need the full raft of tools, potentially saving £160,000 a year over five years. Or about 0.000000016% of the council’s billion-pound annual budget.

National picture

On the whole, Reform-controlled councils seem shocked by their wins – with candidates who seemingly stood to make up numbers now finding themselves in positions of power with little idea of what to do.

This is already resulting in multiple resignations and costly by-elections across different authorities, each costing taxpayers about £27,000 a pop. 

The party’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency might want to take a look at that. 

Are you following a Reform-controlled council near you? Get in touch with any story tips: josiah@bylinetimes.com. All correspondence is handled sensitively, and nothing is shared without permission and verification.

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Josiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.

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