Catastrophe for Conservatives as Reform UK becomes biggest single party at County Hall

T’S a new dawn for Cornwall Council and one the unitary authority has never previously experienced.

- by LEE TREWHELA

At the polls last week the ruling Conservative administration was decimated, losing 32 seats, while Nigel Farage’s claim back in February, when he held a divisive conference in Cornwall, that Reform UK would storm the council at the May 1 election has pretty much come true.

The party, which only had one sitting Reform councillor, will now have 28 councillors at Lys Kernow/County Hall in Truro. It was also a good day for the Liberal Democrats who gained 13 seats and now have 26 councillors.

The Independent group lost six seats, ending up with 16 councillors, while the Tories took a drubbing, ending up with just seven seats. Labour now has four seats, with the Greens and Mebyon Kernow both on three.

While Mr Farage will no doubt claim a resounding victory in Cornwall, Reform didn’t get enough votes to gain overall control. So what happens now? Over the next days and weeks, there will be all manner of political shenanigans to come up with a coalition administration.

Will any of the other groups want to align with Reform? Leigh Frost, the leader of the Liberal Democrats group, said it’s a definite no as far as his party is concerned. There’s more likely to be a Liberal Democrat/Independent pact, but they would still need a political partner to come up with the magic 44 for a majority. Mebyon Kernow perhaps? Or the Greens? Or both? And where does Labour fit into all of this?

Following the result, Reform’s Rowland O'Connor, who won the St Columb Major seat, told me: “We are absolutely delighted. The mechanics of who does what in the council is to be determined. The next phase for us is we need to figure out our structure going into the council and we need to appoint a leader, which will happen within the next 48 hours.