Just three days after last week’s local elections in Shropshire, Hodnet councillor Donna Edmunds has been suspended by Reform UK.
The suspension came after she posted on social media last week that she was waiting for a “real alternative” to the right-wing party and then planned to “defect”.
Posting on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, the councillor announced that she had been accused of damaging “the interests of the party” and had been suspended.
The post read: “Yesterday I woke up feeling very proud to be one of Reform’s 677 new councillors. This morning I woke up to an email from @reformparty_uk Head Office advising me that I have been suspended from the party “pending an investigation.”
“Why? Because I urged people here on X to lend Reform their support for the short term – for Thursday’s elections – even if they felt they couldn’t for the long term. According to Head Office, ‘This has brought the party into disrepute and damaged the interests of the party.'”
A spokesperson for Reform UK confirmed the councillor had been suspended.
They 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.”
Being suspended from a political party does not prevent someone from being a councillor – suspended councillors continue on as independent councillors.
