Dartford Borough Reform ‘party‘ councillor James Buchan has defected to the Tories, just three months after winning election in Stone House ward as a Reform candidate.
Buchan’s resignation statement notes that “the more I saw of Reform the more uncomfortable I felt” – and goes on to become even more damning for the slogans, abuse, racism and lack of interest in helping people of Farage’s party:
I stood for election with the sole aim of working for my community and getting things done for local families. Having had the opportunity to see Reform from the inside I’ve concluded that the party doesn’t really have the experience or ambition to do that.
Relying on rhetoric and slogans isn’t going to help real families in communities like Stone and the more I saw of Reform UK, the more uncomfortable I felt to be part of it. I looked at friends, family and so many other honest, hard-working people and realised that Reform UK has a pretty unfortunate way of treating people. Things like a proposal to remove “Indefinite Leave to Remain” from all non EU residents who are working here perfectly legally is an example that could be devastating for decent people who have built a life here and contribute to our country. It creates a huge amount of fear and anxiety and I want to be able to look my family in the eye and say ‘that’s not who I am.’
Of course, if Buchan really wants to help local people then joining the Tories isn’t going to do that, nor joining the ‘Labour’ party of Keir Starmer, who is trying to out-racist Reform.
But the departure raises again the question of whether Reform can hold itself together long enough to reach the next general election. The ‘party’ – a limited company – haemorrhaged councillors over the summer, expelled five earlier this week, lost another to a resignation the same day and then five more the very next day because they said the national party told them to neglect local issues to focus on attacking immigration and net zero, then Buchan today. In total, Reform lost more than forty councillors just since last May.
On top of the resignations, Reform came a poor second to independence party Plaid Cymru in the Caerphilly by-election last week that it had confidently predicted winning and lost the Bromsgrove South by-election yesterday, an election triggered by the resignation of a Reform incumbent, to the LibDems by a relative country mile.
In both Caerphilly and Bromsgrove, Keir Starmer’s Labour bombed — managing only 92 votes last night compared to the winning candidate’s 1,416 (Reform received over 500 fewer) and only 11% in Caerphilly. Labour’s implosion is already well underway, but Reform’s looks like it might just be getting started.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
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