22-05-2025
Staffordshire County Council Reform leader defends by-election cost
The Reform UK leader of a council has accused other political parties of hypocrisy over their reaction to the cost of a by-election, after one of his councillors Titley won the Eccleshall and Gnosall ward for Reform earlier in May but faced criticism over a social media post around immigration and stepped resignation means a by-election at an estimated £27,000 cost and the Conservative leader on the council called it a "waste of money".But Ian Cooper, for Reform, said he would not "take any lectures from the other parties".
"If you look at Staffordshire alone, Conservative MP Chris Pincher stood down, if you look at the figures, parliamentary by-elections cost in the region of £250,000," he added."You always get people that drop out, Mr Titley decided to drop out, we move forward."But Conservative group leader Philip White described the resignation as shocking."I asked the leader of the council to apologise for that, for the waste of money, £27,000 we're told and for putting the people of Eccleshall and Gnosall through an unnecessary by-election process," he said."He refused to apologise."
Thursday saw the first meeting of the new county council since the at the gathering from opposition councillors, about issues such as special needs provision, highways and budgets, were met with the same line of response from Reform UK cabinet said they would wait to "mark the homework" of the previous Tory-led administration before responding.
Cooper added that he would like to repeat that council work had only just started for the newly elected Reform members."There is a settling in period, steep learning curve for everyone involved," he said."In the background we've got things going on. We have a forward plan to think about".
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