One Down Already? Reform’s First Councillor to Resign

Image – Owain.davies

Mere days after the polls closed following the May 7th elections, there came the news of the resignation of freshly elected Reform UK councillor Stuart Prior. This announcement is accompanied by a wealth of accusations against the party’s new elects. The controversy sheds a shocking light on England’s latest intake of councillors and, more importantly, paints a picture of what the reality of a Reform-run Britain would look like.

Before this news broke, Reform appeared to be riding a high. The May 7th elections were an undeniable victory for Nigel Farage’s party. As well as placing 2nd in Wales and joint 2nd in Scotland, the party won the most available council seats in England: 1452. They have gained control of 14 councils, putting them in a greater position of authority than ever before. One can only assume that the celebrations were jubilant, with Farage seeming several steps closer to Number 10.

Scandals, Suspensions, and a Resignation

Despite their celebrations, by Monday morning the news was out. Councillor Stuart Prior, newly elected just 4 days prior to Essex County Council, one of the 14 that had come under Reform’s control, had resigned. He has been accused of various racist, discriminatory, and harmful comments made on social media, including allegedly celebrating the rape of a Sikh woman in the midlands in October last year. According to a party spokesperson, Prior has resigned from his council position and had his party membership revoked, despite him maintaining that he would not have said such things.

Prior is not the only bad egg. Jay Cooper has resigned from the party as of the 13th of May, though not from his council position, in response to backlash against his claim on social media that the Holocaust was a hoax. Then there is Ben Rowe, who has been suspended from the party pending further investigation after reports emerged alleging he posted several pieces of decidedly unpleasant content on social media, including antisemitic conspiracy material. One mustn’t forget about Glenn Gibbins, who has received the same fate after a disgusting comment resurfaced in which he said Nigerians should be “melted down and used to fill potholes.” Next came the suspensions of Ashely Monk and Jo Monk, though this time not to do with extremist social-media comments but due to internal disputes and accusations against Reform’s leadership.

Much of the recent scandal and comes after campaign group Hope Not Hate released a “dirty dozen” list of Reform councillors, unveiling their social media histories and previous comments. Depressingly, there are many offenders on their list still waiting for a comeuppance. While the group should be applauded, this begs a key question: where the hell is the vetting procedure?

The Vetting Procedure – or Lack Thereof

Back in March of this year a whistleblower drew attention to the failures within Reform’s vetting process. Though she was focused on Wales, her comments speak to the party’s attitude around the vetting of candidates. The whistleblower described an “expensive, flawed, and unprofessional vetting process” used to elect Senedd candidates, accusing the party of a lack of transparency and claiming that the process favoured insiders and personal connections over local knowledge and actual competence.

Similarly, Joe Mulhall of Hope Not Hate has previously called their procedure completely inadequate, adding that Reform is letting in extremist candidates and not removing them once their attitudes are revealed.

Farage and other members of the party leadership have defended their process, with Farage calling their vetting procedure “as good if not better” than other parties. However, this recent slew of scandals surely puts that claim into contention. Besides, he has admitted to using AI shortcuts within the process, so it’s clear the party are not prioritising vetting as they should

A History of Problems

This isn’t the first time Reform councillors have prompted concern. Take Kent County Council, branded as Reform’s “flagship” council after they won outright control of it in 2025. After footage was leaked showing councillors complaining and being told to “f***ing suck it up” by Council leader Linden Kemkaran, 4 councillors were suspended, 3 of whom were then expelled from the party.

Kent County Council was also the prototype for an Elon Musk/DoGE-inspired cost-cutting council, however a few months after these suspensions and explusions the new leader Matthew Fraser Moat stood down, alleging that the council had not made any of the cuts it was supposed to. The council had claimed to have identified more than £39million in future budget savings, however they were accused of fantasy economics, with much of the money identified actually being from “unfunded and unapproved projects” with “no money allocated to them,” according to Labour MP Polly Billington.

The Writing is on the Wall

These controversies and scandals are not isolated incidents; they speak to the culture within Reform. A blasé attitude to extremist comments, a corner-cutting approach to candidate vetting, infighting, embellished statistics, frequent resignations and personnel changeovers… the list goes on.

What these scandals reveal is not only the dire position many councils around Britain are now in, but also what a Reform-run country would look like. And is this really what we want? People love to accuse the Conservatives of sleaze and scandal, but Reform makes them look saintly by comparison. Imagine frequent cabinet resignations, ministers spouting racist comments on social media only to rush to backtrack, financial policy that lacks real backing, AI taking the role of the civil service. These projections aren’t catastrophising – they are the reality that we could face.

The British people need to wake up. Reform are proving themselves to be incapable of proper, responsible governance. They are not an exciting, legitimate alternative; they are a protest movement that has floundered the moment they are awarded any authority. For all those who are calling for Farage to be our next Prime Minister, it’s time to look at the recent news. The writing is on the wall, if only people are willing to read it.

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