Reform UK stormed to a comfortable majority in Nottinghamshire’s County Council election on Thursday, ousting the Conservatives after eight years in power.
The party, led in Parliament by Nigel Farage, only received 743 votes across Nottinghamshire in the last round of local elections in 2021.
Their only seat in the outgoing county council, Stapleford and Broxtowe Central, was held by Councillor John Doddy after he joined the party following his expulsion from the Conservatives last June.
Now Reform finds itself in the driving seat of the county council after winning 40 of the 64 seats available on election day, and received just over 100,000 votes – a 36 per cent upswing in vote share since 2021.
Where did Reform win big?
Reform made considerable gains in unexpected areas. Ashfield, an area which has traditionally voted for independent parties – such as the Ashfield Independents since the party’s creation in 2016 – elected for Reform almost exclusively.
In the last election, the Ashfield Independents won all 11 seats up for grabs in the Ashfield district. In this election, they won just one seat in Ashfield, with the other 10 all electing for Reform.
Jason Zadrozny, leader of the Ashfield Independents and member of the county council since 2007, was ousted in the Ashfield division by Reform’s Alan Bite, by a margin of just over 600 votes.
The only division in Ashfield to remain under the control of the Independents was Hucknall North, where the incumbent John Wilmott beat Reform candidate Sean Neale by just over 200 votes.
What happened to other party leaders?
Mr Zadrozny was not the only party leader to fall in the election. Labour boss Kate Foale lost her seat in the Beeston Central & Rylands division to Teresa Cullen, representing the Broxtowe Alliance, by a mere 27 votes.
Labour overall only managed to secure four seats across the county – less than one third of the tally they had in the 2021 elections.
Labour suffer notable losses in Gedling and Bassetlaw, losing seven seats to Reform across the two districts – just under half the number of seats they had in the outgoing council.
Leader of the Conservatives Sam Smith retained his seat in Newark East by just over 200 votes. Smith now moves into the role of leader of the opposition as the Tories make up the second largest party in the council.
However the Tories lost half of their seats overall, with all but one of their lost seats electing for Reform.
Misterton, a division in Bassetlaw which has voted Tory since the inception of the county council in 1970, chose to elect Reform’s Mike Robertson, who secured just under 2000 votes. The next closest candidate – Conservative councillor Tracey Lee Taylor – won just 1290.
How significant is the victory?
It is true that the makeup of Nottinghamshire County Council has been inconsistent since the new millennium. Overall control of the council has changed hands five times in this time span.
But Reform have taken the largest majority in a County Council election since Labour’s 2001 victory, where they also won 40 seats in a slightly smaller council, further highlighting the significance of the result.
These results reflect opinion polls which have shown a surge of support for Reform over recent months after a rocky start to Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
YouGov’s voting intention poll gives Reform a slight edge over the mainstream parties, with 26 per cent of respondents saying they would vote for the party in a hypothetical general election.
By contrast, Labour sits at 23 per cent, with the Conservatives just below at 20 per cent.
One element of Reform’s election strategy this year was to put candidates into every single division up for election. Last election, Reform only contested eight divisions, as opposed to the 64 divisions they ran in this election.
Nottinghamshire’s results have been similar to those seen across the country. Reform gained 677 councillors and control of 10 councils – a stark contrast to their results in the last elections.
Who will lead the County Council?
Mick Barton, new county councillor for Mansfield East, has been handed the reigns as leader of the County council.
While this is his first tenure as a county councillor, he has spent just over 20 years in local politics as he was elected to Mansfield District Council in 2003.
He previously represented the Mansfield Independents but joined Reform last year.
