The Reform Party (or Reform UK Ltd) has been winning a series of elections in the Central region recently and on 1 May won control of some councils, including Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire County Councils.
There have already been controversies and in some cases, scandals, from earlier by-elections, as well as instances where an elected representative has proved not to be of good character. In March 2025, Daniel Turner had to withdraw as a Reform candidate in Lincolnshire, after pleading guilty to a £28k fraud.
Questionable behaviour: how can we trust our councillors?
Since the election in May other examples of poor conduct have already hit the news. Alan Graves, new Leader of Derbyshire County Council, was found to have breached the Council’s code of conduct after reading out extracts from a confidential report on social media in 2023.
Donna Edmunds, elected in Hodnet in Shropshire, was suspended for writing on social media that she was planning to defect from the party after the local elections. This was only days after election and Edmunds has indeed subsequently quit the party.
Andrew Hamilton-Gray was elected in Loughborough, having told voters he had “spent most of his life serving the crown”. Last week it emerged that he was dismissed without notice from the police for misconduct. He is now Vice-Chair of the County Council.
Caught out on social media: old posts don’t just disappear
Since the election several new councillors have been revealed to have expressed some contentious views, especially on social media.
Bert Bingham, Nottinghamshire County Council’s new cabinet member for the environment, made several posts before the election that man-made climate change “is a hoax“. The Council’s Reform Leader Mick Barton disagreed saying his view is “just one man’s opinion”.
Another is Wayne Titley, a former councillor for Staffordshire County Council, who has resigned his seat for “personal reasons” after receiving criticism for posts on social media, including one posted in March 2025, suggesting that the Navy should fire at immigrants in small boats.
Ron Firman, a Reform UK councillor for West Northamptonshire, posting on social media in October 2017, made an apparent joke about the Ku Klux Klan and was warned about his online conduct.
Joseph Boam, 22, has been selected as Deputy Leader at Leicestershire County Council. He has been the subject of controversy over social media posts from 2022 where he is said to have posted that “depression isn’t real”. Boam claims that the post is “fake news”. Another recent report suggests he has made more outbursts. He has been appointed as leader member for adult social care.
Despite this information being available, these candidates were duly elected.
What are Reform’s policies?
With the elections still a recent event, it’s not particularly clear what Reform’s policies will be, although some indications are emerging.
Andrea Jenkyns, elected as Mayor for Lincolnshire, made a big splash on social media with a photo of her office now festooned with a union flag and the Lincolnshire county flag.
Jenkyns pledged to eliminate all diversity roles in the council and implement a Reform policy to eliminate low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs). These pledges will be easy to keep as the County Council has confirmed it has no diversity roles. It has also emerged that none of the County Councils controlled by Reform have any LTNs. These are not trivial gaffes. Local politics is all about getting important detail right, not about performative ideology. Meeting statutory duties trumps ‘sorting out the flags’.
Another perturbing choice is that in Lincolnshire and Derbyshire’s County Councils, the role of the environment committee is being downplayed and committees responsible for net zero being cancelled or merged into other council committees. In Lincolnshire the Reform-led county council is merging the Flood Defences Oversight Committee into another environmental committee. A decent chunk of Lincolnshire is fenland.
Be careful who you vote for
Reform have had an interesting time after their 1 May victories. One can see that they have had some dubious characters elected, and we can only wonder what lies in store for those who voted them in.
The first thing some voters will have to face is the cost of by-elections. Desmond Clarke, elected in Newark, resigned after a week citing ‘changes in his personal circumstances’. Candidates stepping down shortly after their election win will mean a by-election with an estimated cost of £27,000, money that cash-strapped councils can ill afford.
My reflection on this has been to ask myself how careful I have been in the past in focusing on the character of the candidates I have voted for in council elections. Being honest, I conclude that I too have sometimes voted for the rosette, without delving too deeply into the character of some of the candidates in my area.
Local politics is far more about detail than national politics and the newly elected councillors of all parties will find that their work will be much more about making the most of tight budgets while also meeting statutory requirements. There is far less room for ideology when the bin collections have to happen. The moral for me is that we all need to be more vigilant in vetting exactly who we are voting for.
