‘Wind your necks in’ councillors told over Reform UK resignations

It’s been an increasingly regular agenda item at Cornwall Council meetings – the allocation of seats on committees having to be re-decided after councillors jump ship from one political group to another.

It’s largely been down to the number of Reform UK members who have left the party in Cornwall to join other other groups. The matter was raised at a council meeting today (Tuesday, September 15) and led to a terse debate, with one of those councillors who jumped ship telling other members of the chamber: “Wind your necks in.”

With the allocation of seats on the full council agenda yet again, Green Party group leader, and Newquay Councillor, Cllr Drew Creek told the meeting: “The allocation of committee seats should be one of the quietest items we ever take – set once early in the term and then left alone. It’s meant to be the exception, not something we keep returning to in meeting after meeting. Yet here we are once again.

“We keep reopening it for one reason – the instability of a single group that cannot hold its own shape. Every time it is reopened on a whim, it is officer time and members’ time that belongs to residents tidying up someone else’s disarray. This process costs the taxpayer significant sums of money to manage what is a political playground.”

Cllr Roger Tarrant – who resigned as deputy leader of Reform on Cornwall Council to become leader of the two-member Restore Britain group – responded: “This is part of the democratic process. Chairs are moved around and some of the members need to grow up on that and accept their role as councillors.

“If chairs move and we have to do that process, that’s what we’re here for and paid for – they should wind their necks in on that one.”

Reform group leader Cllr Paul Ashton added: “I think it’s very unfair to say that this is a playground, it’s absolutely not a playground – we are all involved in the process and we have been following the process that’s laid down.

“I think it’s unwise to make statements because you don’t know what’s going to be happening in your own party in the future, so I think we should be very careful about how we make accusations.”

Independent councillor Andrew Mitchell entered the debate. “I think there’s an expectation among councillors and colleagues, and especially the electorate, that you’re going to remain in the party for the four years that you got elected on.

“I would say all these people who are moving party to party because something doesn’t suit them in the party they got elected on need to make their mind up, never mind wind their neck in.”

Five Reform councillors resigned from the council group last year amid friction with the national party’s priorities, including former group leader Rob Parsonage and deputy leader Rowland O’Connor, alongside Christine Parsonage, Karen Knight and Anna Thomason-Kenyon. They formed the Cornish Independent Non-Aligned Group, though Cllr Parsonage later defected to the Conservatives and his wife resigned from the council.

Deputy leader Roger Tarrant quit the party to join Restore Britain earlier this year, with Bruce Craze joining him later, while Susanne Desmonde and Jamie Hanlon also left the party to sit as Independents.