12AUG

Reform down to 50 of 98 Durham seats

2 min read

14:07UTC

Three Durham councillors left Reform UK on 15 September and a fourth followed, leaving the party one departure from losing its outright majority on paper.

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PoliticsAssessed

Key takeaway

One more resignation would leave Reform holding exactly half of Durham's council seats.

Lyndsey Fox, Paul Sexton and Nicole Brown resigned from Reform UK on 15 September and now sit as independents on Durham County Council⁠¹. Aaron Hillam, another Reform councillor, left later in the month and no longer appears on the council's member list. The council's own list on 7 October shows that Reform has 50 of 98 seats, with 97 councillors sitting, against the 65 seats it won there in May 2025⁠². Not every loss is recent: Jack McGlenen, elected for Reform in May 2025, had already moved to the independent benches and on to the Social Democratic Party.

One more departure would leave Reform on 49, exactly half the chamber. Until a by-election fills the empty seat, that would still be a bare majority of the councillors sitting; once the seat is filled, 49 of 98 is no majority at all. The arithmetic turns on the vacant seat, and on whether any other member of the group follows Fox, Sexton, Brown and Hillam.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Durham County Council runs services such as schools, social care and roads across County Durham, beyond the city of Durham itself. It has 98 seats, so a party needs 50 to control it alone. Reform UK won 65 seats in May 2025. Since then councillors have left, and the council's list now shows Reform on exactly 50. One of the 98 seats is empty. Councillors who leave a party keep their seats. If one more Reform councillor leaves, the party would no longer hold more than half of all seats once the empty seat is filled.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Reform won 65 seats in May 2025 with many first-time councillors and little time to build a group whip. The three who resigned on 15 September kept their seats and now sit as independents.

The vacant seat changes the maths. Until a by-election fills it, 49 would still be a majority of the 97 councillors sitting, so the timing of that by-election decides how much margin Reform really has.

The Durham group's losses follow complaints about internal handling: Fox said she had raised an issue on 14 July without an answer by mid-September.

What could happen next?

Risk
A single further resignation would remove Reform's margin once the vacant seat is filled, giving every remaining Reform councillor leverage over the leadership.
Short term · Assessed
Consequence
The by-election for the empty seat now carries control stakes, drawing more campaign effort than a single ward normally would.
Short term · Suggested
Meaning
Durham is the clearest test of whether Reform's 2025 county majorities can last a full four-year term.
Medium term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: In May 2021 Labour lost its majority on Durham County Council for the first time in about a century. Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and independents formed a joint administration, showing the same council's opposition groups have combined before.

Counter-parallel: No clean case exists of an English council changing hands through defections alone while its ruling group stayed at exactly half. At 49 of 98, control would turn on the council's standing orders and the chair's casting vote rather than on any precedent.

Immediate: a ruling group needs a reliable majority to pass the February budget and set council tax. With 50 of 97 sitting members, Reform can still do so without help, but a single absence on the day could matter.

Structural: if control passed to a coalition, the policy choices Reform made after May 2025 would face review. Officers' budget planning for 2027-28 depends on knowing which administration will sign it off.

Consensus view: The council's own list, checked on 7 October, matches Mark Pack's record of departures: Lyndsey Fox, Paul Sexton and Nicole Brown on 15 September, then Aaron Hillam. Fox said she had reported a safeguarding issue on 14 July and was still waiting for an outcome two months later.

Counter-view: Reform's 47 opponents in the chamber are spread across more than eight parties and groupings: 15 Liberal Democrats, 22 independents across four groupings and the unaligned, five Labour, two Greens and one each for Advance UK, the Conservatives and the SDP (Social Democratic Party), so an alternative administration would need almost all of them.

Key tension: Whether the opposition groups could agree a joint leader if Reform's majority goes, or whether Reform could govern on 49 with the chair's casting vote.

Sources:IBTimes UK·Durham County Council

Mentions:International Business Times →Durham County Council →Reform UK →Mark Pack →Social Democratic Party →County Durham →Liberal Democrats →Jack McGlenen →Lyndsey Fox →Paul Sexton →Nicole Brown →Aaron Hillam →Advance UK →

First Reported In

Update #18 · Legal advice halts England's council mergers

IBTimes UK· 7 Oct 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Durham councillor joins UK Social Democratic Party

Durham's Reform group lost three more members after an earlier departure who later joined the SDP.

Occurred 20 Aug 2026

Read story →

This Event

Reform down to 50 of 98 Durham seats

Reform UK took control of Durham in May 2025, and its majority there now rests on a single councillor.

Different Perspectives

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Conservative Party (frontbench peers and Kemi Badenoch)

Conservative frontbench peers argued against retrospective rules at the Lords Second Reading on 14 September, a position that protects gifts made before any cap. Kemi Badenoch rejected Burnham's electoral reform commission on 2 October, accusing him of using it to entrench the left.

Reform UK

Reform denied wrongdoing after the Channel 4 News programme, called the sting a hoax by climate activists and said it would cooperate with the Metropolitan Police. In the same month it announced £36m gifts from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.

Steff Aquarone / Liberal Democrats (North Norfolk)

Aquarone told Rayner in the Commons on 7 September that North Norfolk District Council had spent money preparing for a reorganisation the Government has now withdrawn. He puts the cost of the cancelled merger on districts in the four areas.