Reform UK in local government hit by wave of resignations and expulsions

Here is a list of the 39 councillors elected for Reform UK in the May 2025 local elections who are no longer councillors for the party, and why not.

That's 39 out of the 677 seats they won in May - more than 5% of their newly-elected councillors resigned, suspended or expelled in six months. They were elected in May to fifteen different councils in the North, South, east and West of England.

It is not unusual for a party to lose a few councillors here for a whole variety of reasons. It is rare, but happens, for a party to have a big split resulting in mass resignations on one council.

But for a party to suffer this level of attrition over the country as a whole is almost unheard of and would normally be considered surprising and concerning.

The first name on the list is that of Councillor Donna Edmunds who was suspended less than 48 hours after her election in Shropshire and subsequently left the party, see BBC report, link below:

Shropshire councillor resigns from Reform UK after suspension - BBC News

The most recent name on the list is that of Councillor Tom Pickup who is Lead member for Finance and Resources on Lancashire County council and has been suspended by Reform UK.

Below is a link to a report in the Lancashire Telegraph about the suspension: 

Reform suspends Burnley Cllr Tom Pickup over WhatsApp chat | Lancashire Telegraph


Here is the full list:

1. Donna Edmunds (Shropshire, suspended by Reform UK and then quit the party)

2. Luke Shingler (Warwickshire, now an independent)

3. Desmond Clarke (Nottinghamshire, resigned as councillor)

4. Andrew Kilburn (Durham, resigned as a councillor)

5. Wayne Titley (Staffordshire, resigned as a councillor)

6. Mark Broadhurst (Doncaster, expelled by Reform)

7. Adam Smith (West Northamptonshire, suspended by Reform and then expelled)

8. John Bailey (Durham, resigned as a councillor)

9. Daniel Taylor (Kent, suspended by Reform UK)

10. Sam Booth (Doncaster, resigned as a councillor)

11. Ed Hill (Devon, expelled by Reform)

12. David Maclean (Isle of Wight, resigned as a councillor)

13. Robert Bloom (North Northamptonshire, resigned as a councillor, later charged with harassment)

14. Paul Bean (Durham, suspended by Reform UK)

15. Amelia Randall (Kent, switched to Ukip)

16. Gaynor Jean-Louis (Worcestershire, resigned as a councillor)

17. Angela Nash (Devon, now an independent)

18. John Allen (Northumberland, suspended by Reform UK, later expelled)

19. Jack McGlenen (Durham, expelled by Reform UK)

20. David Knight (Doncaster, expelled from the Reform UK council group)

21. Nicole Brooke (Northumberland, suspended by Reform UK, later expelled)

22. Patrick Lambert (Northumberland, suspended by Reform UK, later expelled)

23. Christopher Marriott (Doncaster, resigned from Reform to sit as an independent)

24. Rowland O’Connor (Cornwall, now an independent)

25. Robert Ford (Kent, suspended by Reform UK, later expelled)

26. Jack Bradley (Derbyshire, resigned as a councillor)

27. Des Watt (Cambridgeshire, now a ‘non-aligned independent’)

28. Bill Barrett (Kent and Ashford, suspended by Reform UK, later expelled)

29. Oliver Bradshaw (Kent, suspended by Reform UK, later expelled)

30. Maxine Fothergill (Kent, suspended by Reform UK)

31. Paul Thomas (Kent, suspended by Reform UK, later expelled)

32. Karen Knight (Cornwall, now an independent)

33. Rob Parsonage (Cornwall, now an independent)

34. Christine Parsonage (Cornwall, now an independent)

35. Anna Thomason-Kenyon (Cornwall, now an independent)

36. Brian Black (Kent, expelled by Reform UK)

37. Richard Morgan (Derbyshire, resigned as a councillor)

38. Isabella Kemp (Kent, suspended by Reform UK)

39. Tom Pickup (Lancashire, suspended by Reform UK)

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