7OCT

Three more of Reform's May intake quit

2 min read

13:09UTC

Mark Pack's tracker added Tanya Brasted, Robbie Withey and Eleonora Gough in September, taking departures from the councillors Reform UK elected in May to 30.

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Key takeaway

Reform's May intake has now lost 30 councillors, three of them logged in September alone.

Three more councillors elected for Reform UK on 7 May left the party during September, according to the tracker kept by Mark Pack⁠¹. That brings departures from the May intake to 30⁠².

Tanya Brasted left the North East Lincolnshire group after the council removed her from its cabinet amid an allegation that funds had been misappropriated. No finding has been made against her⁠³. Robbie Withey gave up his party membership in Aberdeenshire, and Eleonora Gough quit the Solihull group with a public statement calling it "toxic"⁠⁴.

Pack's wider list, which counts every Reform councillor rather than only those elected in May, now runs to roughly 120⁠⁵, against the 56 he had recorded in early August. The individual reasons vary and do not add up to a single story: a cabinet removal here, a quiet resignation there, a public complaint about a group's conduct, a deputy group leader walking out in Plymouth, a defection to the Social Democratic Party in Wakefield.

None of it costs Reform a by-election, because a councillor who changes party keeps the seat for the rest of the term. The council arithmetic therefore moves before any voter is consulted, and a party that selected several thousand candidates inside a few months carries no long apprenticeship through which the mismatches would have shown up earlier.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Reform UK won a large number of council seats in May 2026, but a steady stream of its new councillors have since left the party, whether by resigning, defecting to another party, or being removed. Mark Pack, a political commentator who tracks these departures, recorded three more in September: Tanya Brasted in North East Lincolnshire, removed from her council's cabinet amid a fund allegation with no finding made against her; Robbie Withey in Aberdeenshire, who quit Reform UK membership; and Eleonora Gough in Solihull, who left calling her local Reform group toxic.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

The three September departures split across three distinct mechanisms rather than one common cause: Brasted left after the council removed her from its cabinet amid a fund allegation, Withey resigned his membership outright, and Gough quit calling her local group toxic.

Mark Pack has previously attributed the wider pattern to defection, suspension and resignation rather than any shift in how people actually voted, and these three cases individually illustrate all three mechanisms at once.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Reform UK's May 2026 councillor cohort keeps shrinking through resignation, defection and suspension rather than any further votes, a distinct channel from electoral loss.

Sources:Mark Pack

Mentions:Reform UK →Eleonora Gough →North East Lincolnshire →Aberdeenshire →Solihull →Social Democratic Party →Byline Times →Mark Pack →Wakefield →Plymouth →

First Reported In

Update #17 · Reform's £4m arrived as cash, not crypto

Mark Pack· 3 Sept 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

Caused by

Reform sheds 56 councillors since May

Brasted, Withey and Gough add to the tracker Pack maintained since 3 August.

Occurred 3 Aug 2026

Read story →

This Event

Three more of Reform's May intake quit

Reform is shedding members of the intake that won it its councils, and none of the departures triggers a by-election.

Led to

Labour takes Hirst and Amble from Reform

September's moves to Restore Britain add to departures from Reform's councillor groups.

Occurred 1 Oct 2026

Read story →

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.