Reform in landslide win

Reform UK, the party led by Nigel Farage, stormed to a landslide victory in the Durham County Council elections, held last Thursday.

In the Ferryhill Division, Paul Mountford and Joe Quinn claimed the two seats available at County Hall, while in Chilton, the one seat on offer was taken by Stephen Bowron, also for Reform UK.

Overall, in what was seen by many as a shock result, the party swept the boards, taking 65 of the available 98 seats at the newly restructured County Hall while the traditional establishment parties were almost completely wiped out.

Labour returned just four councillors, down from 53 at the previous election in 2021 and down from 94 councillors in the 126-seat council just twelve years ago.

The Conservative Party held on to just one seat, having won 24 seats four years ago.

The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, went from 17 seats to 14, while the Green Party gained one to double their representation to two seats.

The remaining twelve seats were won by independents who secured a combined total of 31 seats in 2021 in a chamber that was controlled by a coalition of all parties to shut out Labour.

This time there will be no need for coalitions with Reform taking over two thirds of all seats.

Speaking to the Chapter in the immediate aftermath of the result, Cllr Joe Quinn, formerly a Conservative Party county councillor who switched to Reform UK prior to the election, said: “The public want change, not only at a national level, but it starts at county level.

“Having taken control of the county, what this result means for Reform UK is it will show the public that, if you can run a county, you can run the country.”

Responding to whether he felt voters had exercised their vote on the basis of national messaging, Mr Quinn said: “Every election I’ve every taken part in, be it at local, regional or national level, every other party has campaigned on national politics.

“Whenever Labour were in opposition, they made it about the Tories, but now that the shoe is on the other foot, they don’t want to make it national.

“I would have happily made it local, but our opponents made it national and I feel that has come back to haunt them.

“I do believe there should be local campaigns, but inevitably the national picture will always be part of it.”

Asked what Reform UK’s local vision would be over the next four years, he said: “We need to follow up on what we promised.

“On day one we will be getting the auditors in and we will be looking to cut waste.

“We have committed to scrapping net zero targets, which I genuinely believe will save the taxpayer a lot of money.”

On the lack of experience of Reform candidates, Cllr Quinn pointed out that the party has “four serving councillors, who all took on roles in different committees.

“It’s thin experience,” he conceded, “but perhaps that’s not a bad thing. Experience can lead to complacency and a lot of voters nationally are saying, ‘how can it get any worse?’.

“I believe our candidates are good, honest, hard-working and intelligent people, contrary to popular belief.”

Meanwhile, in Chilton, Cllr Stephen Bowron said: “I am absolutely delighted to have been elected a Durham County Councillor for Chilton and I won’t let down those who voted for me.

“All I can say for the people that came out in numbers just to vote for me is thank you very much and now the hard work starts to repay your trust.

“My priorities going forward will be to look at crime being reported in the area and to try to reduce this.

“I will be supporting local groups in Chilton and will be starting up a safety awareness group to monitor traffic speeding through the town.

“There are many more priorities and I will be working my way through the list that residents told me on the doorstep when I was campaigning.”