AIBU to think Reform councillors don’t know what they’re doing?

[Wouldcou]

Reform councillor saying that she doesn’t understand the process. This is the reality of what people voted for.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRnRo3eg/

Also see the amount of Reform Councillors who have quit or defected.

Reform UK has shed 22 councillors and counting in the two weeks since the local council elections on 7 May, triggering a series of costly by-elections.

While Reform won over 1,400 seats in the recent local council elections, Nigel Farage’s party is also shelling councillors to defections, suspensions and lost seats.

Stuart Prior, who was elected as a Reform UK councillor for Essex County Council and for Rochford District Council resigned on Monday 11 May, just days after winning these council seats.

Before the elections, it was revealed that Prior had shared racist posts on social media referring to white people as “the master race” and suggesting white people have “larger brains”.

Less than a week after being elected, Glenn Gibbins, a Reform councillor on Sunderland City Council was also suspended for posting racist comments Gibbons said that the Nigerian population in Sunderland should be melted down to “fill in potholes”.

On the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme on 10 May, Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, was asked if he was happy for someone with these views to represent Reform.

Tice refused to condemn Gibbins’ comments and instead accused the media of “smearing” and “sneering” against Reform.
Ben Rowe, who was recently elected to Plymouth City Council has also been suspended for anti-Islam and antisemitic posts.

The posts were unearthed before the local elections, prompting Reform to say it was investigating the claims.

Another Reform councillor, Barry Martin, who said that the job of a councillor was “so dull and boring” resigned just a year after taking his seat.

Reform Party UK Exposed has published the full list of Reform councillor departures so far:
Lost seats on 7 May

• Mike Morris
• Clarence Mitchell
• Alan Cook
• Mark Shooter
• Kira Gabbert

Resigned

• Daniel Devaney
• Stuart Prior
• Jay Cooper
• Barry Martin
• Stephen Mousdell
• Andrew Harrison
• Kenny Hope
• Danielle Cavanagh

Defected

• Nick Farmer
• Ashley Monk
• Jo Monk
• Matthew Jones

Suspended

• Ben Rowe
• Glenn Gibbins
• Paul Heyward
• Nathaniel Menday
• Laura Newham

Dr David Bull, Reform’s former party chair has also been replaced by Lee Anderson, the Reform MP for Ashfield. In a post announcing Bull’s departure on Facebook, Reform said it was “delighted” that Anderson has become the party’s new chair, adding: “David Bull has overseen unprecedented growth in his time as Chairman and will still remain heavily involved in the party”.

My reform councillor is thick as shit which seems to be par for the course.

They've appointed 19yo George Finch to lead not one, but 2 councils.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2e21nm0le1o

YANBU
https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/26130431.st-helens-mp-raises-concern-reform-uks-political-adviser-hire/

lots of apologists saying, well it’s a difficult job, other councils do it (a small minority with more complex set ups) but as I understand it, ALL councillors are offered a 4 day induction and councillors including many independents have got by without this since time immemorial. Nowadays, in addition to the induction, you can access resources online including hours of tape from council meetings!

youve got to admire the sheer chutzpah of Reform to go from promising policy changes one day, to claiming they have no knowledge of how the system works the next. We should all be vigilant, this maybe the start of Reform ‘cutting red tape’ to simplify the system and make it easier for them to do as they wish without heed to process or pesky rule of law.

is it just Reform, National Anthem + Christian prayers? What about the Greens and independent councillors? Think all councils should be secular and leave National Anthem for when the King is actually there. And all councillors should be either born in UK or have British citizenship, as there’s a MSP who is only in UK on a student visa.

If I apply for a job without looking at the requirements or researching the organisation I want to work for, I would expect to not even get an interview. In the outlandish event that I do get an interview, if I then rock up with zero preparation, I would not expect to get the job. If in the stratospherically unlikely event that I get the job, I then fail to turn up to the induction and whine about not understanding the job, I would expect to get the sack.

These councillors in Kirklees have only themselves to blame. And with people like that making the news, anyone who gets upset by people calling Reform supporters stupid needs to get a grip.

I work for KCC. When Reform came in they were banging on about all the things they were going to cut especially in Social Services due to the money being wasted by feckless councillors. Their other big thing was how Kent would be the flagship county for their copy of DOGE in cutting waste - the 2 things really tied together.

Then when they sent people round and asked about various areas, they discovered much of this "wasted" money Kent were spending was in regulatory functions, where the council legally has to provide a service to a certain standard as mandated by Westminster.

They also found that staffing in most areas was cut to the bone, with no allowances made for tasks that had increased over time e.g. my department has seen workload increase by about 20% over the last 5 years, with no increase in staffing. Pay is at the bottom end for equivalent grades compared to other councils.

We're probably lucky in that we were examined properly by their experts first, because at least they did get to realise these facts early on rather than swinging the cancel stick then finding out they couldn't after it was too late.

If someone applies for a job, they usually at least look to see if they understand the technicalities of that field. Clearly many of our new councillors didn't look into this first.

The residents of Warwickshire (County Council) and particularly Nuneaton and Bedworth (Borough Council) are going to be well-served, then.

No they haven’t got a clue. God help us if their idiot supporters manage to get them elected into government.
The only important thing at the next general election is to stop the far right.

Haven’t RTFT so apologies if repeating.

but this is a prime example of why the phrase “well they can’t be any worse than what we’ve got” is utter tripe.

The Reform candidate in my area published no info about their intentions if they were to win the election, so how on earth people could vote for them genuinely baffles me. It should be mandatory to publish your experience and intentions as a minimim prior to being placed on a ballot.

since the May 2025 elections, reform have lost 73 councillors
already since May 2026 elections, it’s 15 councillors
it costs £30k every time you have a by election, so to date, reform have spunked £2.6 MILLION of tax payer cash

Looking at the lists in your link, around 45/50 councillors joined other parties, sat as independents or were reinstated - you wouldn't need to hold by-elections in those cases. A number of others were suspended with the outcome to be determined.

Yep....they are a complete shit show.....but it won't stop them garnering many votes going forward, the people who vote for reform don't care about how incompetent greedy or corrupt they are, as long as they can stick two fingers up to the rest of us...

Sorry, but must say - Into your face! (For the morons who woted the Reform)

They don't have much luck with politicians in Sheffield - the previous Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam was jailed for fraud in 2023, the Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley also has a criminal conviction for fraud.

Lucky Sheffield.

Trust Clav to provide the whataboutery...

Have you tried becoming a Reform candidate?

They've given a young lad, straight out of school, with no real work experience, no real life experience, a job overseeing a budget of 100s of millions of pounds. What could possibly go wrong?😬🙈

I hate to think how inadequate / lazy/ stupid / uncommitted the rest of the Reform councillors are if this teenager was the best option.🤔

Farage has disappeared this week because he doesn’t want to answer questions about his £5m “gift”. He never talks about Brexit any more because he knows it’s been a disaster. His local election leaflets went on about migrants, even though that’s not an issue for local councils to solve. Reform promises fairy tales and fields lousy candidates. If god forbid he became PM he would try and ban “unfriendly” journalists from his press briefings. He’s all for “freedom of speech” until he doesn’t like what he’s hearing. Have you heard the revolting way he’s spoken to some female journalists? I actually think he’s nastier than Trump.

The (Evening) Standard/aka "The Evening Boris" ran a story about a (Labour) councillor in Haringey who has just resigned and how it was going to cost the Council £140k to run the by-election (absolute rubbish, probably half that) but the same Conservative-backing rag has said nix about multiple Deform UK resignations

If god forbid he became PM he would try and ban “unfriendly” journalists from his press briefings. He’s all for “freedom of speech” until he doesn’t like what he’s hearing. Have you heard the revolting way he’s spoken to some female journalists? I actually think he’s nastier than Trump.

Yes he's definitely a Trump emulator, nearly everything he says sounds like it came out of the mouth of Trump.

Reform councils have and are already restricting press access - it happened in Nottingham (and was partially rescinded) and is happening in Suffolk, where Reform councillors have been instructed only to talk to GB news. Transparency, accountability...

They are dangerously useless and incompetent.

I live in Kent and ours have done nothing, beyond putting the council tax up which goes against their election promises...

Also the media should do more to report that since the recent local elections the party has already lost 22 councillors who have either resigned or been kicked out because of dodgy social media posts.

Not to mention the fact that some Reform led council are restricting access to the press to avoid scrutiny.

It really shows what the party is like.

Sadly, I think you’re right in your cynicism.

I have met many local councillors from all sides of the political spectrum and IME a depressingly large number of them don't know what they are doing.

I am willing to wager that their incompetence did not manifest in the form of standing in the council chamber and refusing to participate based on lack of understanding? Or making
their first request a political advisor at a
cost of 200k?

Please don’t try to normalise the incompetence of Reform. We are sleepwalking into danger.

Where have they been since 1970?