Councillor quits Reform over council tax rise

A Reform UK councillor in Worcestershire has announced he is quitting the party over the local authority's plans to raise council tax.

David Taylor, who represents Redditch East, said he was leaving the party and would continue sitting as an independent councillor during Sunday's edition of BBC Politics Midlands.

Worcestershire County Council recently warned it was facing "effective bankruptcy" and has applied to the government for permission to potentially increase council tax by up to 10% from April.

A spokesperson for Reform said Taylor "has never been prepared to undertake the role of a councillor to the extent we feel is required" and resigned when challenged.

Taylor described the authority as a "failing council" with £600m debt and said he could not support plans that expected people to pay high increases in council tax.

"I walked in here today as a Reform county councillor - I won't be leaving this studio as a Reform county councillor," he told the BBC.

"As from today, I will be an independent councillor."

Taylor added people in his constituency were "skint" and did not have the money "to pay for a massive upheaval in council tax".

"What will happen is they're going to pay more and receive less," he said.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

The local authority's leader, councillor Jo Monk, has said its finances were "a mess" and warned it might have to issue a Section 114 notice - effectively declaring itself bankrupt.

She was joined at a briefing on Friday by Reform UK's deputy leader, Richard Tice, who said Worcestershire's finances were the worst of any of the councils it controlled in England.

Taylor, who resigned as deputy leader of the authority in August, explained he had "several issues" with the running of the council, from both a political and officer perspective and "council tax is one of those issues".

He added: "I think we could have made decisions sooner and I think leaving it this late in the day to make cuts and to expect people who are already not doing so well... to expect them to pay more council tax, I just don't think I can support that."

In response, the party said: "Reform inherited Worcestershire County Council in exceptional financial measures after more than two decades of Conservative mismanagement.

"Sadly, this means that council tax will have to rise to keep the council solvent, however the Reform administration is working around the clock to ensure this increase is kept as low as possible."

Staff bonus

Taylor added there were several other policy decisions that he could not stand by, including a policy for a "retention bonus payment" for all staff across the county council, which he said was up to 10% of their annual salary.

"This was aimed at all staff across Worcestershire County Council but also for the senior executive team," he said.

"I can't support that and the leadership in Reform in Worcestershire were going to support this policy."

The party said it was something that was potentially to be looked at but had since been dropped.

The county council is battling a budget shortfall for 2026-27 and is still waiting on an answer over £71m in Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) from central government.

When asked if Reform UK was failing in Worcestershire, Taylor spoke of how the party was given "a difficult hand" - but the council had been in "steady decline" for a long time and could have made "better decisions".

"There's lots of new councillors in Reform," he said. "All of the Reform county councillors should have come to this with their eyes open."

In response to Taylor's resignation, councillor Adam Kent, who runs the opposition Conservative group on the council, said: "There's no clearer message is there…the fact that he resigned live on the air because he doesn't support this council tax rise."

"At least he had the humility to turn around and say: 'I got elected on cutting tax not increasing this, I can't support it.'

"I've got a lot of sympathy for him to be honest, I think he's made a brave decision and I'm hoping a few more of them might make a decision."

He described the authority's situation as "total financial mismanagement".

"The best thing they can do instead of cancelling elections is calling elections, and Jo Monk's got to go to be honest," he told BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"This has come about since May; if they'd got control of the financial strings then we wouldn't be here."

In a media briefing on Friday, Reform UK's deputy leader, Richard Tice, as well as Monk, appeared to blame the previous Conservative administration for the finances, saying they were "reckless".

Tory councillors have rejected that accusation and accused Reform of "hypocrisy", blaming the party as well as central government.

Politics Midlands is on BBC One in the region from 10:00 GMT on Sunday and available afterwards on BBC iPlayer

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