A comprehensive tracker of Reform UK representatives published by monitoring account @reformexposed shows that approximately 99 individuals have been kicked out, suspended, disqualified, resigned or defected from the party since it began winning council seats at scale – including 22 who have left since the local elections just two weeks ago. Any other party experiencing this scale of internal haemorrhage would face sustained mainstream media scrutiny. Reform has faced almost none.
The figures sit in stark contrast to the dominant media narrative of the past three weeks, which has focused on Reform’s historic gains – 1,440+ council seats as we reported in our full election night coverage – while giving minimal attention to what has happened to a significant proportion of the people filling those seats.
The full picture by category
The tracker, sourced from @reformexposed on X and covering Reform representatives since the party began winning council seats in significant numbers, shows the following breakdown:
Kicked out: 21 Brian Black, Oliver Bradshaw, Paul Thomas, Bob Ford, Bill Barratt, Ed Hill, James Regan, Mark Broadhurst, Paul Bean, Adam Smith, Daniel Taylor, John Allen, Nicole Brooke, Patrick Lambert, Maxine Fothergill, Ian Cooper, Edward Harris, Isabella Kemp, Aaron Roy, Jay Cooper, Caroline Gladwin.
Defected: 28 Amelia Randall, Nicola Brown, Christopher Marriott, John Roddy, Peter Colley, Dean Burns, Jack Goncalvez, Charles Whitford, Chris Large, Luke Cooper, Scott Cameron, Kieran Mishchuck, Kathryn Shaw, Joanne Blythe, Alistair Hendry, Graham Eardley, Andrew Barry, Todd Ferguson, Owain Clatworthy, Dawn Saunders, Cain Parkinson, Brandon Dodd, Roger Tarrant, Susanne Desmonde, Nick Farmer, Jo Monk, Ashley Monk, Matthew Jones.
Suspended: 5 Lynn Dean, Ben Rowe, Glenn Gibbins, Paul Heyward, Nathaniel Menday.
Disqualified: 1 Andy Osborn.
Resigned: approximately 39 Mark Whittington, Jack McGlenen, Gaynor Jean-Louis, Wayne Titley, Donna Edmunds, Luke Shingler, Desmond Clarke, Andrew Kilburn, John Bailey, Sam Booth, David Maclean, Robert Bloom, Rowland O’Connor, Rob Parsonage, Christine Parsonage, Karen Knight, Anna Thomason-Kenyon, Richard Everett, Jack Bradley, Angie Nash, Richard Morgan, Daniel Thomas, David Cumming, Desmond Watt, David Taylor, Michael Ramage, Stuart Graham, Andrew Thorp, Shaun Knowles, Tony Hill, Todd Ferguson, Sarah Shields, Ewen Sinclair, Daniel Devaney, Stuart Prior, Barry Martin, Stephen Mousdell, Andrew Harrison, Kenny Hope.
Lost Seat: 5 Mike Morris, Clarence Mitchell, Alan Cook, Mark Shooter, Kira Gabbert.
Total: approximately 99 individuals.
Since the local elections alone
The rate of departure has, if anything, accelerated since May 7. In the two weeks since Reform’s historic night, the following have left:
Lost Seat: Mike Morris, Clarence Mitchell, Alan Cook, Mark Shooter, Kira Gabbert
Resigned: Daniel Devaney, Stuart Prior, Jay Cooper, Barry Martin, Stephen Mousdell, Andrew Harrison, Kenny Hope, Danielle Cavanagh
Defected: Nick Farmer, Ashley Monk, Jo Monk, Matthew Jones
Suspended: Ben Rowe, Glenn Gibbins, Paul Heyward, Nathaniel Menday, Laura Newham
That is 22 departures in 14 days – the period in which Farage was taking his victory lap.
The names we have already covered
Several of the individuals on this list have been the subject of our own reporting in recent weeks.
Stephen Mousdell – the St Helens Haydock councillor whose adult content platform was revealed by LBC. He resigned rather than apologise, saying “I am who I am. I’m proud to be a gay individual in this community,” as we reported in our full piece on his resignation.
Ben Rowe – the Plymouth councillor suspended for sharing a post depicting a bomb being dropped on Mecca, as we covered in our Reform councillors suspended piece.
Ashley Monk and Jo Monk – the two Worcestershire councillors caught in an internal party dispute. Ashley publicly attacked Farage saying his suspension was “for refusing to back someone whose track record shows jumping from party to party for personal gain.” Jo Monk had led Worcestershire County Council. Both now appear in the defected column.
Stuart Prior – the Essex councillor who resigned and had his Reform membership revoked over alleged racist posts.
These four cases alone generated significant controversy in the days after the local elections. They represent a fraction of the 22 who have left since May 7.
The vetting question – again
As we reported in our original vetting failure piece, Reform claims to operate “some of the strongest vetting procedures in the country.” The 99-person tracker presents a sustained evidential challenge to that claim.
The categories are instructive. Twenty-one councillors have been kicked out – removed by the party itself following conduct it found unacceptable post-election. Twenty-eight have defected – choosing to leave Reform for other parties or no party. Thirty-nine have resigned. Five have been suspended. One has been disqualified.
The defection figure is particularly telling. Twenty-eight people who were prepared to stand as Reform candidates and in many cases won elections under the Reform banner have since decided to leave the party. That is not a vetting failure – it is an ideological or organisational instability that produces departures from people who originally chose to be there.
The scale compared to the party
Reform won approximately 1,440 council seats in the local elections. If even the 22 departures since the elections represent a significant proportion of longer-serving representatives, the overall picture of retention is significantly worse. The tracker lists 99 individuals – a figure equivalent to nearly 7% of the seats won in a single election night.
As we reported in our analysis of Reform’s first year in local government, the councils Reform already controlled before May 7 have raised council tax, tried to close care homes, scrapped climate targets and had internal disputes that produced grassroots reversals of their own decisions. The party is now governing hundreds more councils. The infrastructure required to manage that scale of representation, with a staff and party structure that remains thin relative to Labour or the Conservatives, is being visibly strained.
The media silence
The user who flagged this tracker noted specifically: “Any other party would be generating headlines in the MSM as journalists would be demanding answers.”
This observation echoes Piers Morgan’s point on Question Time – as we reported in our Morgan Question Time piece – that the same people now defending Farage’s financial arrangements would have “gone absolutely berserk” if the same facts applied to a Labour politician.
The same principle applies to internal party governance. When Labour had difficulties with its membership processes, its candidate vetting and its internal disputes – during the Corbyn era and more recently – the coverage was sustained and detailed. Ninety-nine departures from a governing party’s elected representatives, including 22 in a fortnight, represents a significant story by any editorial standard.
Whether mainstream political editors treat it as such is itself an editorial choice whose pattern is visible and worth naming.
