A COUNCILLOR who joined Reform just months after being elected as a Conservative claims he would have won more votes standing for his new party.
Reform UK, which has been riding high in Welsh and UK opinion polls, announced this week Stephen Senior had joined the party and hailed it as a sign of its expansion “across local communities in Wales”.
He was elected to Pontypool Community Council, the lowest rung of local government, at a by-election in February.
But three months since he defeated the only other candidate, Labour’s Sarah Evans, to represent the New Inn Upper ward it has been announced he will now sit as a Reform UK councillor.
Asked if it was fair to the 225 residents who had elected him, and Conservative members who supported his campaign, to change parties so soon after his victory Mr Senior said: “Without doubt, I was elected as the alternative to Labour and would have received a larger vote as a Reform candidate.”
The election was held on the same day Reform UK won its first council seat in Wales, via the ballot box, when Stuart Keyte won the Trevethin and Penygarn ward in Pontypool, on Labour-dominated Torfaen Borough Council, the top-tier council in the area.
He joined three other Reform councillors who’d all previously been independent before forming a group under the party’s banner in August, shortly after it finished second to Labour in the Torfaen constituency at the general election.
Though Torfaen is seen as a Labour stronghold Mr Senior was one of four councillors elected as Conservatives on Pontypool Community Council, though community councils aren’t run on party lines.
Mr Senior said few community council wards are contested but said the by-election in which he won his seat to sit on the council, that doesn’t run any statutory services, was “an opportunity to vote on Labour’s record both locally and nationally”.
He said he is looking forward to “being part of Reform UK’s common sense approach to governance across the whole of Wales as we move towards the crucial elections next year” and continuing to serve on the council which spends a budget raised from a precept added to the unitary authority’s council tax bills.
“Reform UK has the right policies for the UK and therefore Wales,” said Mr Senior: “Nigel Farage and his team are prepared to be frank with the public about the problems facing this country and offer long-term workable solutions.
“My decision means that for the first time, Pontypool Community Council will have a Reform voice at the table. Reform UK wants to see value for money and decisions being made that are to the benefit of local council tax payers, rather than to support particular ideologies.”
During his election campaign, Welsh Conservative Senedd Members for South East Wales Natasha Asghar and Laura Anne Jones had canvassed with him.
Natasha Asghar
Ms Asghar said: “It is of course, incredibly disappointing to see Cllr Senior jump ship to Reform, a group which has zero interest in Wales, and I am sure that sentiment will be shared by all those who voted for him as a Welsh Conservative candidate in this election.”
She disputed Reform’s policy platform and added: “I am sure Cllr Senior will regret his choice in time when Reform inevitably implodes.”