Councillor Who Defected To Reform Laments Joining Farage Party

A councillor who left the Conservatives to join Reform UK has called his own defection “the biggest mistake of my life”.

Robbie Lammas, elected as a Medway councillor in 2021, joined Reform in October 2025 – and is already planning to quit Nigel Farage’s party.

“I’m going to leave Reform, I’ve had enough, it’s not what I signed up to, and I feel I’ve been misled,” he told the BBC. “Yeah, I am embarrassed about it. It was a huge mistake.

“Lots of others from Reform have told me they too feel it was a mistake to defect but they’re not in a position to publicly admit it, but for me I’m happy to admit I’ve made a big mistake.”

He said the move was the “biggest mistake of his life”, adding: “I think at the time I was used for a news story.”

Reform announced 20 Conservative councillors had joined its ranks last autumn on the penultimate day of the Tory party conference.

Lammas, who now sits as an independent councillor, said: “I find with Reform they’re good at spin, but struggle with good governance.”

A Reform UK source said: “We rejected him for a job multiple times – a failed Tory is no loss to the party.”

The right-wing party only has eight MPs, but it has frequently pointed to its victories in local elections as proof of its growing popularity.

Reform won the largest number of seats in England in May 2025, securing 41% of all local authority seats (677 in total) being contested at the time.

The party also picked up more than 1,450 council seats this year.

But 21 councillors have been kicked out of Reform since winning their seats, while 33 others have defected, seven have been suspended and one disqualified.

A further 47 have resigned and five have lost their seats.

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