Reform’s performances in local government would provide a “shop window” into how his party would govern at a national level, Nigel Farage beamed as it took control of a swathe of town halls last year – perhaps unaware of quite how accurate that would be.
And Staffordshire Council, in the West Midlands, is proving a basket case even by the low standard of Faragiste local authorities – this week appointing its fourth leader since Reform took charge just 17 short months ago.
The council, which handles an annual budget of £840 million, has voted in Hayley Coles as its new Reform leader. A keen supporter of the chemtrails conspiracy theory (the belief that governments are using high-altitude airplanes to spray secret chemical or biological agents into the sky), she succeeds Martin Murray, who has stepped down after serving seven full months in office.
Murray’s focus had been on fighting “woke” in the county best known for ceramics, saying Reform had stood on a pledge to eradicate equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) policies. Its first move was to ban LGBTQ+ Pride displays in its libraries.
But now he has confirmed he is stepping down as both leader of the council and leader of its Reform group, saying it is in the best interests of Staffordshire without giving any further details. “I do so with a clear conscience and immense pride in what we achieved together,” he said, those achievements amounting to taking down a few posters in libraries.
Murray had himself followed Chris Large, who lasted a handful of days in charge before quitting due to a “family bereavement”. Coincidentally, said bereavement came just as Large was facing questions about comments posted to a TikTok account which carried his name and he had access to.
The account had responded “Yep” to a comment saying the then deputy prime minister David Lammy was “just another greedy none [sic] thoroughbred”. The account also commented “True” to a separate post claiming Lammy’s “heart [did] not belong to Britain” and that he was “not loyal to Britain”, and liked a comment saying: “Anyone who’s not actually white English should never be trusted to work within our government.”
Reform issued a statement on Large’s behalf, insisting he did not write or endorse any of the comments. “Access to this TikTok account was shared amongst a number of people. It is clear this needed to change. As such the account has been deleted,” Large said in it. “To be clear: I have not personally liked or commented on these posts and I fully condemn their content.”
Nevertheless, he was gone within days.
And Large had followed Reform’s first leader of Staffordshire Council, Ian Cooper, who took charge in May 2025 but had his membership of the party revoked in December when social media posts emerged, coincidentally also referring to Lammy. Posts at the centre of complaints about Keir Starmer’s foreign secretary included one stating that “no foreign national or first generation migrant should be allowed to sit in Parliament”.
The council declined to uphold allegations of racist social media posts by Cooper this summer because it said he “was not acting in his capacity as a councillor” at the time. He remains an independent councillor in Tamworth.
What a rum bunch indeed! And worth remembering: when Nigel Farage says Reform’s performances in local government provides a “shop window” into how his party would govern at a national level, it’s one promise of his you can believe.
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