Who is Derbyshire's new leader Alan Graves?
"I know I have been around the block a long time but the majority of my members have not."Alan Graves is about to take the reins as the new Reform UK leader of Derbyshire County Council with 41 party colleagues who are almost entirely brand new to their positions.The same cannot be said for the 62-year-old, a councillor and parliamentary candidate going back decades.Before his election as county leader, a Reform colleague of his on Derby City Council, where he also leads the party, described him to me as "the obvious choice".
Praise was not just limited to his local colleagues.Rarely amongst their new cluster of council leaders, Reform UK's senior leadership team have known Graves for a long time as the man who spearheaded their first group of elected councillors in the country."Alan is a seasoned local government veteran," one Reform figure glowed, describing him as a "champion" who will "lead with distinction".It was his cluster of Reform UK councillors on the city council, a rare slither of turquoise in English local government, that prompted the then-leader Richard Tice to describe Derby as the party's "spiritual heartland" to me during their spring conference there in 2023.The now deputy leader of the party told me this week he was "delighted" to see Graves installed as leader."His hard work and commitment is second to none," Tice said.
His opponents, of course, have their reservations."Alan is an experienced councillor who I am sure has the capability to lead", said Derby City Council's Labour leader Nadine Peatfield."But I believe he will find the experience of leading a multimillion-pound organisation extremely different to heckling from the sidelines."
Alan Graves is a retired software sales director who was first elected to Derby City Council as a Labour councillor in 1995 but left the party in 2008. He has since been in UKIP, the Brexit Party and finally Reform UK since 2020.Graves stood for Parliament as the Brexit Party's candidate in Derby North in 2019 and for Reform UK in Derby South in last summer's general election, finishing second behind Labour.Graves was also the party's first mayor, when he was elected to the position in May 2023, beating his Labour opponent by one vote.At the time, Labour councillors including the now MP for Derby South Baggy Shanker, walked out in protest.All this is the reason why there were some raised eyebrows when he told me this week that he was not a "career politician"."I'm a person in politics not a politician...I don't try and go up the greasy pole," he told BBC Radio Derby in 2024 when he was running for mayor of the East Midlands.He went on to lose the race to Labour's Claire Ward.
Graves told me he intends to stay on as a city councillor for Reform UK representing Alvaston, something his opponents will likely criticise. This is especially the case given he has been critical of other councillors for seeking two roles in the past, including those who are both councillors and MPs."There's lots of councillors that have two council roles and I'm no different to that," he told me.
As part of his 2024 East Midlands mayoral campaign, he vowed to seek legal advice on scrapping the position within his first 100 days.Another part of his platform was to ensure the new combined authority "does not waste money" - so he has been talking about what has now been coined Reform's "DOGE" message since well before this recent local election campaign.In another reflection of this, he has also said previously he would cut cabinet positions on the city council down to just three roles - though he later apologised when in the same breath, he appeared to use a cabinet member's maternity leave as an example of councillors not pulling their weight.
All this is indicative of the fact that Derbyshire's new leader is not someone who is afraid to wade into controversy. In fact, the very next day after his election this week, we met again at a hearing he faced at the city council.A committee found he had broken council rules by reading out extracts of a confidential report in a social media video.Graves had been unhappy about how a dispute between himself and another councillor was handled by officers.He told me he had no regrets."It's exposed the council for the fact that there's lots of injustices going on," he said.I asked if it showed he has a cavalier attitude towards the rules."Absolutely not. I've been doing this for 30 years and this is the first time it's happened," he responded."I didn't get the justice I deserved."
What can we expect?
Graves was reluctant to go into too much policy detail when he emerged from Reform's AGM at Matlock County Hall this week."Give us a chance to sit in the chair", he said.But we can likely expect net zero initiatives and spending to be curbed, a leadership prepared to "fight" the Home Office on any further moves to house asylum seekers in Derbyshire hotels, and some symbolic dictats on diversity training and what flags should be flown outside the council.But, as a colleague of his in the party put it to me recently when their commitment to community funding was questioned, "everything is under review".
"It's about getting the brush out and making sure we do a proper sweep...I think people will see changes quite quickly", Graves said."We are normal people and we're going to try and change the way the council does things."
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