Test of character Reform councillors seem to be failing

WHAT is it about people elected for Reform UK? This column is not about their former Welsh leader, Nathan Gill, jailed for ten and a half years for taking bribes from Russia; no, this is about something else.

- Ron Beadle

Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran has seen her formidable number of councillors whittled away since Reform UK's election victory seven months ago

Of five MPs elected in July 2024, only three are still with the party and one in every 20 Reform councillors elected this May have resigned or been expelled.

Most dramatically, Kent County Council, the jewel in Reform’s crown, have lost nine of their 57 councillors.

More locally, Durham have lost four of 65 and Northumberland have lost three of 23.

You might object that there are individual circumstances in each of these cases, that all parties suffer some attrition and that we should not judge too harshly as they are learning on the job.

All these things have some explanatory merit but the fact is that this pattern is repeating everywhere, it is large enough to indicate something systematic and it shows no signs of abating (the Reform UK group leader on Doncaster Council quit last week, claiming he had received “vitriolic texts that border on abuse” from members of his own party); something deeper is at work.