Four Adur councillors who defected from the Conservatives faced confusion when a spokesman for Reform UK said they would not be accepted into the party.
Carson Albury, Carol Albury, Neil Parkin, and Andy McGregor announced their decision to leave the Tories earlier this week, saying that only Reform upheld the values of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
But a spokesman for Reform said: “The party has an established defections process that respects the confidentiality of all involved. Making their application public before even contacting Reform UK led to the decision not to accept them into the party.”
This came as something of a surprise to the four councillors, who were unaware that they had made a mistake, having spoken to other party members.
In a joint statement, they said: “We took advice locally and followed what we thought was the right procedure. We knew we had left it to the last minute and our applications may not be successful.
“Reform UK has over a quarter of a million members, and a dedicated councillors defections on-line form to deal with people like ourselves.
“Hopefully we can sort out any misunderstanding, but in the meantime we are committed to serving Adur residents as their independent councillors for our last month before elections.”
The four will finish out their current terms on Adur District Council as Adur Independent Councillors. This makes them the official opposition to the Labour administration on the district council.
The political make-up of the council is now Labour 17 seats, Adur Independent Councillors four, while the Conservatives, Green, Shoreham Beach Residents’ Association, and Lancing & Sompting Independents all have two seats.
Mr McGregor and Mr Albury also serve as county councillors. The political make-up of that council changes to: Conservative, 38; Lib Dem, 10; Labour, eight; Green & Independent Alliance, five; Reform UK, four; Independent, three – and one vacancy.
The decision of the four councillors to quit the Tories appeared to come as a surprise to the East Worthing & Shoreham Conservative Association.
A spokesman said: “The association had no notice of their resignation and were actively working with three of them to support them in the upcoming local government elections as recently as the previous week.
“None of the four had spoken of any political disagreement that they might have had with the local association or the Conservative Party nationally.
“It is ironic that they claimed in their statement that they want to pursue a more Thatcherite style of politics, when the evidence is that under the leadership of Kemi Badenoch the Conservative Party is becoming the voice of those who espouse those values.”
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