As the threat of widespread Reform victories at next May’s council elections becomes ever more real, here are two remarkable examples of how the party behaves when it wins seats.
In Reform-controlled Worcestershire, the party’s county councillor Gaynor Jean-Louis has resigned after outstanding service to the Bromsgrove South ward since her election in May.
Jean-Louis, who says she is ill, failed to attend her election count and has not turned up to a single council meeting since winning. Yet she has continued to take her councillor’s allowance, which opposition councillors want her to return, given that a by-election to replace her will cost local taxpayers around £30,000.
Suggested Reading
Reform’s ghost candidate who died six months earlier
Meanwhile, Reform have given a terse “no comment” to a report by campaign group Hope Not Hate about remarks made at the party’s conference in early September by its South East organiser Adam Wordsworth.
It is claimed that Wordsworth could be heard telling a group of members: “I cover Kent and that is the bane of my existence at the moment. It turns out they’re all wankers and it turns out they all hate each other and it turns out all they do is fight with each other rather than reforming the council or attacking the opposition or making savings.”
Perhaps not coincidentally, Reform is now advertising for a Regional Director South East. The job ad requires any potential new recruit to have “excellent… verbal communication”.
Most popular
Palestine Action: We are not the terrorists
The rise of the early downsizers
Blue Lights: Belfast’s reality TV
Helen Lewis: ‘Is Musk a genius? Look at his tweets’
