Reform UK struggles to find friends to share council power

Reform UK's success in the recent local elections has propelled many councillors with limited or no political experience into council chambers across England.

While Reform UK's rise was the big story of those elections, almost half of the councils up for grabs were not won outright by any single party.

That means many of those newbie councillors are now navigating so-called hung councils, where parties with little in common often work together to get the business of local government done.

But so far, it hasn't panned out that way for Reform UK, which isn't involved in any formal coalitions, pacts or deals in areas where there were local elections this year.

This was despite rampant speculation about Reform-Conservative coalitions ahead of the polls, with party leaders Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage not ruling out council deals.

So, what's going on?

In some places - Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Leicestershire - Reform UK has enough councillors to form minority istrations and is attempting to govern alone.

In other areas where coalitions were possible, Reform UK has either shunned co-operation or vice versa. Where Reform UK has explored potential partnerships locally, its policies have been viewed with suspicion by the established parties.

In Cornwall, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives refused to work with Reform UK, even though it was the biggest party and had won the most seats.

Instead, the Lib Dems teamed up with independent councillors to run Cornwall Council as a minority istration.

That infuriated Reform UK's group leader in Cornwall, Rob Parsonage, who branded the coalition deal "undemocratic" and "a total stitch-up".

Did other parties contrive to exclude Reform UK? The newly minted Lib Dem council leader, Leigh Frost, does not think so.

"The reality is our core values at heart of it just stand for two very different things and it makes working together incompatible," Frost told the BBC.

"And then Reform was given two weeks to try to form an istration and chose not to."

Frost said Reform UK's Cornwall candidates mainly campaigned on immigration.

This was echoed in conversations with other local party leaders across the country.

The BBC was told Reform's candidates had little local policy to offer and mostly focused on national issues, such as stopping small boats crossing the English Channel.

Slashing "wasteful spending" by councils, like Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in the US, was also a common campaign theme.

In Worcestershire, where Reform won the most seats but fell short of a majority, the party's supposed lack of local policy was a major sticking point for the Conservatives.

"They haven't got a local prospectus and that was part of the problem," said Adam Kent, Tory group leader on Worcestershire County Council.

"They didn't stand on any local issues. It was on national politics. How can you go into coalition with somebody if you don't even know what they stand for":[]}