A newly elected councillor has quit Reform UK after she was suspended over a social media post just days after being elected.
Donna Edmunds, who was elected in Hodnet in Shropshire, was suspended for writing on X, formerly Twitter, that she was planning to defect from the party after the local elections.
Ms Edmunds on Sunday had written on the platform that she had been suspended from the party “pending an investigation”.
She had previously posted about waiting for the party’s ousted MP Rupert Lowe to set up a challenger party “and then I will defect”.
When trying to quit the party, Ms Edmund found that her only option was to cancel the auto-renewal of her payment, so she technically will remain a member until the year is up.
But she launched a tirade against Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, declaring that he “must never be prime minister” and is a “terrible leader”.
She said: “A good leader knows that you bring your team with you, that you champion their successes as the team’s successes.
“A bad leader claims personal credit for every win and stabs people in the back.”
Ms Edmunds also said she no longer has to “watch what I say” and so called for the jailed far right activist Tommy Robinson to be freed from jail, describing him as a “political prisoner”.
Her suspension and decision to quit the party just days after the local elections marks a chaotic start to Reform’s life as a party of government, having won control of ten councils as well as the mayoralties of Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire.
The party also came under fire on Monday for vowing to ban all flags from council buildings except the Union Jack and St George’s flag, meaning Ukraine and pride flags would be barred from being flown by public authorities. Reform was later forced to clarify that county flags would also be allowed.
It also came as The Independent revealed Reform mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns’ vow to get rid of council diversity officers as one of her first acts in Lincolnshire has fallen flat as the county council doesn’t employ any.
And it emerged the party offers home working despite having vowed to put an end to working from home in local authorities it controls.
A Reform UK spokesman said: “The reason for her suspension is that she posted on social media that she intended to defect to another party. We will not comment further until the completion of the investigation.”
Mr Farage hailed the results as “the end of two-party politics” and “the death of the Conservative Party” as Reform picked up 10 councils and more than 600 seats in Thursday’s poll.
As the Tories faced a Reform surge in the North and parts of the Midlands, the Lib Dems put the squeeze on their vote further south, gaining more than 100 councillors.
Labour also suffered a devastating set of results, losing a by-election in one of its safest seats as well as 187 councillors.
Ms Edmunds was asked to comment.
