Reform is being slammed for running its local election campaign on a platform to cut waste, yet triggering a by-election that will cost thousands
A Reform UK councillor in Nottinghamshire has stepped down just a week after being elected.
Desmond Clarke, one of 40 councillors who helped Reform UK to take control of Nottinghamshire County Council last week has resigned, saying he couldn’t represent voters “in the way they deserve”.
This will now mean a by-election will take place Newark West in Nottinghamshire, but a date has not been set.
Conservative group leader and former council leader Sam Smith, has slammed Reform over the resignation.
“Seven days after fighting an election on a promise to cut spending and waste, the Reform County Councillor for Newark West has resigned which will result in the triggering of a by-election that will cost taxpayers thousands of pounds,” he said.
Robert Jenrick has also weighed in, saying: “Just 7 days after being elected the Reform councillor in Newark has resigned saying he’s ‘not in a position to represent the people of Newark in the way they deserve’.”
“Perhaps he should have thought about that before standing. Thousands of £ will now be wasted on a by-election.”
Reform suspended a councillor just three days after she was elected.
Donna Edmunds, elected in Hodnet, Shropshire, resigned from the party after posting on social media about plans to defect to another right-wing party following the local elections.
The party suspended her not for backing far-right thug Tommy Robinson, but for saying she was waiting for Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe “to give us a real alternative”.
In Warwickshire, newly elected councillor Luke Shingler left Reform for the Independents because his job in the RAF bars him from party politics.
Those who work for the UK armed forces are, “not permitted to join a trade union or a political organisation, to speak to the media or in public without permission or to stand for elected office”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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