'It's on them to deliver' - New opposition leaders in West Northants speak out after Reform takes charge

Longstanding councillors and even group leaders were not safe from the onslaught of light blue, with Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems all losing their party leaders.

Reform ended the day with 42 councillors out of the 76 spaces on the unitary. The Conservatives will now sit as the largest opposition party with just 17 members, while Labour has nine and the Lib Dems have six. There are also two Independent councillors on the authority.

Tory leader Adam Brown, Labour leader Wendy Randall, and Lib Dem leader Sally Beardsworth were all ousted last week. Some lost by as little as two votes.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has spoken to the new leaders of the opposition groups across West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) about their reactions to the new chamber and attitudes to the new Reform UK administration.

The LDRS has contacted representatives for the local Reform UK group, however at the time of publication, it has not announced who the new leader of the party and WNC will be.

‘We will not oppose for the sake of opposition’

Dan Lister, the man formerly in charge of the local economy, culture and leisure and the driving force behind many town centre regeneration projects, has now been chosen as the new Conservative group leader after winning back his Long Buckby seat. Former cabinet member and Rural South Northants councillor David Smith will also be taking on the reins as party deputy.

He said: “Whatever comes forward, we will not oppose for the sake of opposition. I’m sure there will be some things that Conservative voters will be interested in seeing coming forward. Equally, we will hold [Reform] robustly to account to ensure that services in West Northamptonshire are delivered.

“Reform need to be honest now – what are they delivering, what are their priorities and what are they going to do different?”

He told the LDRS that he thought it was an election run on national issues, with “very little information” presented by Reform on local policies or election commitments.

Cllr Lister added: “It’s been very difficult for anyone politically at this point, and I think it’s the same for many of the councils across the county with Reform majorities, to know what the plan is.

“What we’ve seen is a swing away from a hugely unpopular Labour government and for the Conservatives, people not knowing on a national perspective where we stand. Central leadership needs to nail that down and say these are our values, these are our policies.”

When asked if local scandals, like the resignations of ex-Tory leader Jonathan Nunn and Conservative Police Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold, had an effect on the outcome, he said that it may have influenced some voters, but it hadn’t come up as a “hot topic on the doorstep”.

“We’ve got 17 councillors left,” he said. “Our councillors will still be delivering for our residents and ensuring that they get the services they deserve. We thank all those who voted for the members that returned, and for those that didn’t, we will carry on fighting for you, whoever you voted for.

“There’s so much we were working on and we really just want to see the work that we started continued because it’s been four years of change for the electorate. It takes time to establish a brand new council and we were moving in the right direction.”

‘Major dissatisfaction’ with local services

The Labour group has backed former Northampton MP Sally Keeble as their new group leader, after she won her seat in Dallington and Spencer. Councillor Bob Purser (Abington and Phippsville) will remain as the party’s deputy.

She said it was a “double honour” to be elected by the public and chosen as the group leader. She told the LDRS that she had ventured back into politics to make a difference to her community, after she had noticed concerns with service delivery and left-behind areas in the town.

Reflecting on the result last week, she said: “It was a very challenging election and it would be stupid to pretend that the results were anything other than disappointing.

“It became clear very early on that there was major dissatisfaction with local government services in some of our core areas. I think that parties which had been present on the council, even though we weren’t the administration, people still blamed us for some of the state of the services.

“There’s also a climate of mistrust in politicians attached to established political parties. I think those forces came together in an absolutely unparalleled way and impacted on the vote.

“On the plus side, in Northampton our vote in certain areas held very firm and we had much better results than Labour did in virtually any other area in this election.”

She also paid tribute to former leader Wendy Randall and other councillors who were not successful at the polls, saying they would be “very much missed”.

“People who survived the tsunami are very pleased indeed because it was a real achievement in a very tough campaign,” she continued.

“First of all, we have got to hold Reform to account. They are a new party, most of them complete unknowns, and they have come in having criticised everybody else – well, now it’s on them to deliver.

“We also have to reflect on how we work in our communities and make sure we do really listen and learn the lessons and deliver for people so they can see what a Labour councillor does. Everybody’s very aware of the challenges that lie ahead and they’re also very motivated to make sure that they really do deliver and fight to regain trust.”

‘Our job is to remind Reform that there are lots of other views out there’

Former Liberal Democrat deputy Councillor Jonathan Harris has been bumped up to group leader after winning back his ward in Brixworth and serving six years in local politics. His deputy will be Rosie Humphreys, who served on the unitary in WNC’s first term.

Unlike the Conservatives and Labour, the group slightly increased their voter share and the number of councillors elected in the 2021 elections, but lost longstanding councillor and group leader Sally Beardsworth in Kingsthorpe to Reform.

Cllr Harris told the LDRS: “We were gutted to have missed out on some really close wards, as was the case for the Conservatives and Labour. We’re sad to lose Sally, who had served for nearly 40 years as a councillor and had a lot of experience, but we’ll still hear from her, that’s for sure.

“But, we are where we are. We’ve got a lot of experience in the group and they’re all solid individuals. You can’t do the role of a councillor without being really committed to it.

“First and foremost, we’re elected to represent the people who voted for us locally, but our job is also to look at the whole of the wider West Northants area. All of those things should be about positive movement forward for West Northamptonshire; it should not be about political dogma.”

Looking back on the political shake-up of the council and losses from the Tories and Labour, he said: “I think what you’re seeing locally is the reflection of what is being spoken about nationally, which is whether the old two-party system is dead. As a Liberal Democrat and long-term advocate for proportional representation, I think we’re on that brink where that is a serious consideration.

“Reform is only marginally in charge with 33 percent of the vote overall. Our job in council, I think, is to remind [Reform] that there are lots of other views out there still.

“Again, it’s back to the issue of what have they promised to deliver? That’s not clear to me. There’s a lot of rhetoric that worries me – fussing about what kind of flags can and can’t be flown is not going to change people’s lives for the better in West Northamptonshire, and that’s what the council should be about.

“Our job is to make sure that if they change things or take a different path that they do so in an appropriate way. If there is a positive, they now have accountability and responsibility like they’ve never had before, and they have to deliver. I think they will find it much harder doing it rather than throwing rocks at it. ”

The first public meeting of the new council will take place at The Guildhall on Thursday (May 15).