Meet Mick Barton, the ex-miner named first Reform UK leader of the county council

HAS PARTY GOT THE KNOW-HOW TO TAKE OVER £600M BUDGET?

- By GEORGE PALMER-SOADY

AFTER Reform UK won a convincing majority in the May county council elections, rumours began circulating about who the next person to lead the authority would be.

Forty councillors from Nigel Farage's party were elected to Nottinghamshire County Council in a day which saw the Conservatives lose their narrow grip.

With only one of the influx having previously sat as a councillor, questions arose about the potential lack of leadership experience in the Reform majority.

Critics, including former Conservative council leader Councillor Sam Smith, have also questioned the party's experience of running services, and said their success was due to widespread disgruntlement over national policy issues such as immigration.

But Mick Barton - the former miner and business owner from Mansfield who is the council's new leader - says he and his colleagues have a "magnificent skillset" to run the authority.

He only became a county councillor weeks ago, taking the Mansfield East seat from the Tories, but Barton has spent more than 20 years in Nottinghamshire politics.

After finishing school, he worked down the Mansfield and Welbeck pits for ten years before setting up his own flooring supply and fitting company in 2000.

Three years later, he was elected to Mansfield District Council, where he still serves as a councillor. During that time, he has held an array of cabinet roles, including deputy leader, and was a candidate for the Mansfield mayoral elections in 2023.