Can Reform UK’s maverick membership be controlled?

One week in and the “turquoise tsunami” of new Reform UK councillors is already making some less welcome waves.

- SEAN O'GRADY

A couple have already relinquished their party allegiance, while there are embarrassing, at best, allegations about the views expressed or endorsed by others in the past on social media.

After taking majority control of 10 councils plus two mayoralties, there will now be unprecedented scrutiny on the party’s personalities, policies and performance...

How are the new councillors doing?

Many are very new to politics, let alone running a local authority, so they will have much to learn. As things stand, two individuals formally elected as Reform councillors are no longer Reform councillors. Donna Edmunds, elected to represent Hodnet Ward in Shropshire, has quit Reform UK, having already been suspended by the party because she’d asked the voters to “lend” their votes to Reform only for the short term. She has described the party as a “cult” and accused the party’s leader, Nigel Farage, of treating its members with contempt.

The other early, less willing defector is Luke Shingler. Elected as a candidate for the Galley Common ward in Warwickshire, his employment by the Royal Air Force has created complications, as, to be clear, he explained during the campaign: “On Thursday 1 May, I will still appear on the ballot paper under the Reform UK Party, I can not change this. If elected, I cannot stand as a Reform councillor, I will have to be an independent councillor representing YOU until I leave my employment.”