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UK Local Elections 2026
3SEP

Reform loses 22 councillors in 14 days

3 min read
12:41UTC

Reform UK shed 22 councillors in the fortnight after 7 May (five lost seats, eight resignations, four defections, five suspensions), at an annualised rate of roughly 27%, against the 4-6% baseline NatCen records for newly elected parties.

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PoliticsDeveloping
Key takeaway

The departure rate runs roughly five times the NatCen baseline for newly elected parties, with active defections driving the figure.

Reform UK lost 22 councillors in the 14 days after polling against an elected base of 2,126 , per political scientist Mark Pack's detailed tally. The breakdown runs five lost seats, eight resignations, four defections, five suspensions. At 1.57 departures per day the annualised rate sits at roughly 573, or 27% of the elected base, against Reform's own projected 10% that would have implied 200 over a year.

The NatCen Local Election Cohort Study baseline for any newly elected party runs 4-6% in the first year. Reform's 14-day rate annualised is roughly five times that figure. Defections, the rarest of the four categories, are the qualitative signal: movement to Restore Britain and to independents indicates ideological rejection rather than personal exit. Suspensions are the second analytical signal because suspended councillors continue to count in the headline seat total but cannot vote on cabinet or committee decisions. The party's effective working numbers on affected councils have therefore dropped further than the public count shows.

This matters for the live LGR judicial reviews running in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. Committee balances on the three challenger councils are shifting before the Administrative Court has heard a substantive application. If the rate holds to 22 a fortnight, roughly 40 to 50 will have departed by the end of June, against a party simultaneously running three judicial reviews and a Standards Commissioner investigation into its leader. Defections are also the category most likely to compound: each public departure produces evidence other waverers cite as justification.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Reform UK won over 2,000 council seats on 7 May 2026, making it one of the biggest council forces in England. But since then, the party has been losing councillors quickly. In just two weeks, 22 have gone: some lost their seats in recounts, some resigned, some were suspended by the party for misconduct, and four switched to other parties entirely. This rate of loss is much higher than normal. Research organisation NatCen found that newly elected parties typically lose around 4-6% of their councillors in their first year. Reform is currently on track to lose about 27% in a year, which is five times the normal rate. This matters because Reform controls several councils, including Essex, and is fighting court battles to block government restructuring plans. If Reform keeps losing councillors, its majorities on those councils could disappear before the court cases are resolved.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The structural cause runs through Reform's candidate recruitment mechanism. The party's 2026 candidate slate was assembled from its activist and donor networks rather than through local Conservative or UKIP infrastructure that might have filtered for prior governance experience.

HuffPost UK and HOPE not hate's pre-election reporting documented Reform's vetting as minimal: cold-call recruitment of sitting councillors from rival parties five days before the nomination deadline. Candidates recruited under those conditions have no loyalty to the party organisation and no pre-existing integration into council governance culture.

The suspension category reveals a second structural problem. Suspensions follow disciplinary processes within the party, not the council. A councillor who holds a council seat but is suspended from the party group cannot participate in group decisions, attends council as an independent, and reduces the group's effective voting bloc on committee decisions.

Reform suspended five councillors within 14 days of polling, meaning the party's disciplinary machinery moved faster than its governance onboarding. The suspensions preceded any vote on substantive council policy, suggesting the triggers were pre-election conduct discovered post-election rather than post-election governance failures.

What could happen next?
  • Risk

    If defections to Restore Britain continue at the current rate, Reform may lose working majorities on one or more of its 14 new councils before the LGR pre-action deadlines resolve, complicating the legal challenge's political mandate.

    Short term · Assessed
  • Consequence

    Each publicly named defection produces evidence other wavering councillors can cite, creating a compounding dynamic where attrition generates further attrition at an accelerating rate through the summer recess.

    Short term · Assessed
  • Opportunity

    Labour and Liberal Democrat council groups in No Overall Control councils have gained minority negotiating leverage at 61 councils as Reform majorities thin, opening dealmaking opportunities on committees and planning decisions.

    Short term · Assessed
Sources:Mark Pack
Mentions:Mark Pack →Suffolk →England →Essex →Electoral Reform Society →Green Party →Norfolk →Administrative Court (England and Wales) →Restore Britain →UKIP →Brexit →Reform UK →
First Reported In

Update #9 · Three constitutional contests open

Mark Pack· 22 May 2026
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Causes and effects
Caused by
Reform base triples to 2,126 councillors
The 10% projected attrition rate from polling day was the baseline against which the observed 27% annualised rate in weeks one-two represents a major overshoot.
Occurred 8 May 2026
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Seven Reform exits in seven days
Seven departures in the first seven days (ID:3304) extended into 22 departures over 14 days in this event.
Occurred 14 May 2026
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Green air comes out as governing begins
Reform losing 22 councillors (ID:3545) while its national share climbs to 27% illustrates the vote-vs-organisation split surfaced by this poll
Occurred 1 Jun 2026
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This Event
Reform loses 22 councillors in 14 days
Five times the historical baseline for first-year departures, with defections rather than retirements driving the unusual rate.
Led to
Reform's councillor losses start to slow
The post-election attrition spike tracked in May slowed but continued to roughly 40 cumulative departures by July.
Occurred 2 Jul 2026
Read story →
Reform loses Old Catton to the Tories
Reform's post-election councillor attrition tracked since May surfaced at the ballot box in Old Catton's loss.
Occurred 16 Jul 2026
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Different Perspectives
Scottish Labour members
Scottish Labour members
Scottish Labour's published leadership nominations show 33 MPs and MSPs backing Michael Marra against 12 for Joe Fagan, with members voting until 17 September and a result on 19 September. Elected members do not cast the ballot, so the nomination gap measures the parliamentary party rather than the membership that will decide it.
Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission
The Electoral Commission published its Q2 2026 donations register on 3 September, recording Reform UK's £5.44m as the highest of any party and Ben Delo's £4m as two cash gifts. The register records a donation's form and amount, not the origin of a donor's wealth, so a cash gift shows the same as any other.
Reform UK
Reform UK
Danny Kruger, Reform UK's MP for East Wiltshire, called the Bill "a flagrantly partisan attempt to kneecap Reform UK" during the 2 September debate, objecting to its trade-union exemption. Reform enters its Birmingham conference having topped Q2's donor register at £5.44m, £4m of it in cash from Ben Delo, a form the new ban does not reach.
Ian Davidson, Acting Returning Officer for Clacton
Ian Davidson, Acting Returning Officer for Clacton
Davidson's office printed a 90cm ballot paper for the record 34-candidate field, with nothing in electoral law capping candidate numbers or the £500 deposit each pays. He expects the paper's size to raise printing costs and slow the count into the early hours, a strain that follows from the major parties' boycott, not from turnout.
Labour Party
Labour Party
Labour gained Penistone East from Reform on 20 August but lost Harraby South to Reform the same night, a wash that undercuts any claim of momentum. The party can point to beating Reform in a genuinely fought contest, but not to a pattern running only in its favour.
Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats took two of Reform's May wards, Almondbury on 13 August and St Neots Eynesbury on 20 August, the latter on a 29.8-point rise in their own vote share. Both results let the party claim it is the beneficiary when voters turn against Reform, not Labour or the Conservatives.