Ribble Valley Council leader quits Conservatives to join Reform UK
'Decades of broken promises'
He is among 29 councillors from across the country who have defected to the party.Other Lancashire councillors who have joined Reform recently include Lancashire county councillors Ged Mirfin and Matthew Salter, and Wyre councillor Paul Ellison. They left the Conservative Party because they "felt abandoned and disillusioned by it after so many broken promises", Reform UK said.Mr Atkinson said his council had delivered "great success" for residents, but he resigned on Sunday from the Conservative Party to join Reform and would be standing for the party in the county council elections.He said: "The reason is that Reform - its vision for growth, prosperity and safety for all Britons - is what the country needs. "And to paraphrase Edmund Burke, all it takes for bad things to prevail is for good men and women to do nothing. "And that's the reason why I make this decision for the greater good."And like so many others, I feel betrayed by decades of broken promises. Tory MPs, ministers and prime ministers have failed over the last 14 years."He claimed: "Labour and the Conservatives have morphed into one. They have become the same thing, high immigration, high taxes and high energy bills. They've let patriots like me and the rest of the country down. They are the globalist uni-party."The only way to ensure we beat Labour is uniting behind Reform, all with a shared vision, making sure the UK is sovereign, prosperous and independent nation that we all know it can be."The BBC has contacted Ribble Valley Borough Council for comment.
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