Reform’s new councillors: not working, not turning up, still getting paid
When Reform UK swept into councils across the country in May, its champions promised a new era of competence and efficiency. Gawain Towler, the party’s ever-loyal spin man, reassured voters that Reform’s people would be “competent and just a bit better than the last lot… they expect them to try.”
Well, are they trying? The short answer: no. The longer answer: they’re not even showing up.
Reform’s no-shows
This week alone produced two fresh embarrassments. On the Isle of Wight, Councillor David Maclean quit after repeatedly failing to attend children’s services meetings. In Cornwall, Councillor Christine Parsonage, who lives a staggering 45 miles from the town she supposedly represents, has not turned up to a single session.
And they’re far from alone. Attendance records across the country show a bleak pattern: Reform councillors bunking off, skipping key votes, and treating taxpayers’ money like pocket money.
In Doncaster, Rachel Reed, one of Reform’s senior councillors, failed to show up for a meeting about a £1m scheme to stop youth crime, which was awkward, given her party’s heavily advertised “Summer of Crime” campaign. She also missed a housing panel meeting on families’ access to council homes.
Staffordshire’s Craig Humphreyson, vice-chair of the pensions committee, has skipped nearly half his meetings, including one on fraud prevention. His colleague Michael Carver has done even less: he’s managed to attend just one meeting since being elected, missing discussions on cardiac care and maternal health.
And then there’s Kent councillor Dean Truder, who hasn’t attended a single meeting since May. Not one. Yet he has already pocketed over £2,600 in allowances. His committee is meant to scrutinise planning applications. Instead, the only thing he’s approved is his own payslip.
This is Reform’s idea of “efficiency”: absentee councillors collecting taxpayer-funded salaries while the business of local government goes ignored.
The credibility problem
Of course, councillors often juggle other jobs, and no party is free of skivers. But Reform has built its brand on attacking waste, promising ruthless efficiency and action. It even launched a pompously titled “Department of Local Government Efficiency”. The irony is painful: you can’t cut waste if you don’t even turn up for work.
Zia Yusuf, the party’s ex-chairman, recently declared that Reform had “an embarrassment of talent”. He wasn’t wrong about the embarrassment.
Lord of the expenses
As if Reform didn’t have enough freeloaders, Tory peer Lord Jackson is rumoured to be defecting. Voters might remember him from the expenses scandal, where he claimed £66,000 for his second home, including a £3,000 carpet, a “summer room” refurb, and swimming pool repairs. He called it “value for money”. Presumably Reform, which pledges to end government corruption, now thinks “value for money” means claiming for a private pool.
“We welcome scrutiny”
That’s what Gawain Towler insists. But scrutiny is the last thing Reform’s management team needs right now. Three candidates in the party’s upcoming board elections have histories of pushing conspiracy theories online. Among them: Sean Matthews, leader of Reform in Lincolnshire, who shared the claim that “the Islamic takeover is real and happening.” This is who Reform wants running its show.
Infighting already
And while the next election is still four years away, Reform’s leaders are already fighting over who gets what cabinet job in their fantasy government. Yusuf has declared himself the rightful chancellor. Richard Tice, deputy chairman and money man, wants the role too. One of them bankrolls the party; the other was briefly sacked and then reinstated within 48 hours. It’s less a government-in-waiting than a pub brawl over who gets to sit nearest the bar.
The above content is a summary deriving from recent posts by Hope Not Hate
