Hitler controversy
Barely had the local elections been completed, then Accrington North Reform Councillor Joel Tetlow was mired in controversy. Within days of his election it was reported that two Labour MPs had called on Reform UK to suspend Tetlow, after a photo of Adolf Hitler was shared on his official Facebook page.
Blackpool South MP Chris Webb and Hyndburn MP Sarah Smith jointly shared a screengrab of the offending post from Tetlow’s account and condemning the post, Smith was reported to have said: “During this country’s VE Day anniversary week, he deemed [it] appropriate.”
The BBC said that they had approached Tetlow, who told Sky News he did not “mean any disrespect”, and Reform UK for a response. It was added that, “Lancashire County Council declined to comment and said it was a matter for Reform UK”.
Confusion over education
More recently, a conversation has been recorded that suggests that another Reform councillor in Lancashire doesn’t really understand her party’s national policy on Special Needs education.
Ellie Close, Reform councillor for Leyland South has been reported as saying that most of all she wants Reform to use their new found power to speed up diagnoses for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Close commented: “If we can fix that, and that’s the only thing we manage to fix in the next four years, I would still say that’s a success”. Her interviewer replied that this was an interesting point of view for a Reform councillor, given that her party leader Nigel Farage claimed, (without any evidence) that there is “overdiagnosis” of SEND which Farage described as “creating a class of victims”.
Close looked shocked and asked the interviewer to repeat the information, before replying, “I’m not really sure what to say to that, because I’ve got personal experience with it. I think it’s something that we need to currently look at.”
Reform councillor suspended
Then it was reported in November that Tom Pickup, a Reform UK councillor who had been elected to Lancashire county council in May had been suspended for participating in a WhatsApp group where members allegedly called for a “mass Islam genocide”.
Pickup confirmed to the Guardian he was a member of the group set up by a rightwing activist.There were various exchanges about Starmer, of what could be called a juvenile nature, including a comment by Pickup himself.
It was also noted that in other messages, Pickup “called a government minister a ‘Ukrainian boy penetrator’ and said he agreed with ‘mass deportations’. Pickup was said to have posted: “Everyone in Reform is a lot more hardline on immigration than is typically stated publicly, to get a majority government we have to be tactical”.
Saying a lot, achieving little
Lancashire County Council has a lot of work to do, with some of the most deprived wards in the country, within its borders.Yet Reform seem to be happy to say a lot, without actually achieving anything concrete for the people of Lancashire.
One example of this, came when Ella Worthington the reform councillor for Skelmersdale west, sought to havevaluable council time spent by proposing that the National Anthem be played at the start of each Full Council meeting.Quite how this would help those who reform claim to stand up for, is unclear.
More valuable council time was taken up with another motion, this time from Reform councillor Joshua Roberts, which maintained that “this council therefore resolves to ask Cabinet to review the council’s approach and policy to flying flags over council property in line with this principle and to ensure the priority of that only the Union Flag, the Flag of England, the Lancashire Flag, royal flags, and military flags and ensigns”. Again, just how that would help the thousands of Lancastrians struggling with the cost of living crisis was not made clear. As the father of the late Northern Ireland politician John Hume once said to his son, “You can’t eat a flag”.
Council Tax rises and the fall of DOGE-style cuts
It was reported in early November that 8 of the 13 councils run by Reform had hinted at plans to raise council tax in 2026.
It was further reported that, “in at least six of these councils, making up around 4.8 million people, bills could rise by the maximum of 5 per cent. These increases come despite Reform pledging to bring down counciltax ahead of last year’s local elections”
Then a few days later, on 10 November, it was reported that reality had hit Lancashire County Council and its Reform leadership. There had been promises of DOGE-style efficiency cuts, mimicking those proposed by Elon Musk in the United States, but these had amounted to nothing, as no meaningful savings from cash-strapped councils such as Lancashire could be found.
Azhar Ali OBE, leader of the opposition on Lancashire County Council and an independent councillor, was reported as saying that he believed that Reform had been told by council officers that there was no choice but to increase council tax by 4.99 per cent. Ali commented: “There is a danger to the taxpayers of Lancashire of being hit with the maximum council tax increase by Reform despite their pledge to freeze it,”
Lancashire County Council leader Stephen Atkinson then announced on 2 December that “council taxes [raises] could not be ruled out”.
Performative politics, not solid achievements
When Reform gained 13 councils in the local elections last May, it was argued by some that the public would see a lot of performative politics and a lot of talk, but little would be achieved. This seems to be the case with Lancashire County Council.
Time has been spent on performative politics, such as deciding to play the national anthem before full council meetings and on flag policies, while their proposed drive to cut what they called ‘waste’, has predictably come to nothing.
Meanwhile, one Reform councillor has been suspended for being part of a racist WhatsApp group, another has been sharing a photo of Adolf Hitler, while a third seems to be in the wrong party altogether, when it comes to education policy.
None of this seems to augur well should Reform come to power nationally. The people of Lancashire and the wider country need politicians that will do things that can create real progress, not performative politics and other distractions.
North west Bylines approached Lancashire County Council and ReformWestLancs for comments. Lancashire County Council had no comments, ReformWestLancs did not reply.
Friends of Bylines Network
There has never been a greater need for grassroots journalism that investigates the stories that really matter, holds power to account and champions the voices of everyday citizens. We are proudly powered by volunteers but what we do isn’t free.
STAND WITH US for independent, citizen-led journalism that makes democracy stronger, and you will even get some exclusive benefits.
