Despite running on a platform of hardcore cuts to government spending, newly-elected Reform politicians are… asking for increased government spending.
It’s not like you think, though – they’re not asking for more money to be spent on services or initiatives; they’re asking for it to be spent on them specifically:
Reform UK, costing you more money.
➡️ Reform UK Durham Leaders calling for more pay.
➡️ Reform UK Mayor Andrea Jenkyns calling for more pay.
➡️ Reform UK Staffordshire calling for more advisors.
➡️ Reform UK Scarborough Mayor 250% pay increase. pic.twitter.com/xtojhoqsUl— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) September 21, 2025
On 19 September, we covered the Reform mayor who wanted an ‘eye-watering’ budget bump to tackle ‘non-mayoral concerns’. The latest instance of reverse-cuts is the leader of Durham County Council arguing that councillors should be paid more.
Here’s the thing, though, we’re not saying that’s wrong, but we are asking how Reform can maintain its position on cuts when the first thing its politicians ask for in office is more money?
Money, please
The Local Government Chronicle (LGC) quoted council leader Andrew Husband, who said:
It feels like good councillors are being suppressed because of the opportunity to bring in the caliber of people you need.
How would you entice people to come from the private sector, to take a chance in politics? If you’ve got a house with a mortgage and a family to feed and financial responsibilities, it’s really set up to make it difficult for the grassroots to get involved in council politics.
If you know nothing about how we pay councillors in this country, you might be thinking ‘typical greedy politicians‘. As LGC notes, though, the basic allowance in Durham is just £13,300 per annum.
Did you think being a councillor was a job? Nope!
In the UK, we’ve decided the role of councillor is more of a part-time hobby for the independently wealthy. Husband noted this himself, saying:
You don’t want people coming into the career with one foot in the grave, already semi-retired doing it as a bit of a hobby, it can’t be done as a hobby it’s got to be your heart and soul and it’s got to be full time and a commitment.
We agree completely, comrade.
We agree less with this next point:
However if you achieved something and if the multi-million pounds of savings are coming through and you can see a benefit of trying to keep a strong cabinet together and entice more talent into politics, it’s something that hopefully will be looked at at some point.
Husband thinks that poorly-paid part-time Reform MPs are going to deliver millions upon millions in savings. Umm, I’m sorry, but if these savings can be delivered on the cheap, then why should we pay you more to make them?
I don’t see Reform arguing that other workers should receive more pay based on how well they do. Will every branch of the council get a pay rise for making cuts, or just the councillors?
Clearly, they haven’t thought this through.
Proper pay for proper work
Writing on the case for paying councillors, Adam Cantwell-Corn wrote the following for the Bristol Cable in 2022:
Through to the 20th century: While the UK trumpeted itself as the birthplace of modern democracy, the House of Commons was anything but that. MPs were not paid and were expected to sustain themselves through private means. Inevitably, the only class able to do that were landowning and wealthy men, who overwhelmingly conducted politics in their own interests and world views. The majority suffered as a result.
Imagine if parliament were completely filled with wealthy landlords instead of just largely filled with them.
It doesn’t bear thinking about.
Cantwell-Corn also said:
The Chartists, one of the most important radical working class movements in British history, agitated for change. Payment for MPs – so that parliamentarians could be drawn from across society – was one of six demands in the 1838 People’s Charter. It was furiously opposed by the establishment who feared that the election of ‘the lesser classes’ would disrupt their grip on wealth and power. It took until 1911, and the 11-year-old Labour party to get it over the line, helping to open the door to a generation of MPs that transformed Britain.
Cantwell-Corn notes that modern councillors are only expected to work 25 hours a week, and that they’re expected to work another job alongside this. The problem is that council work comes with odd hours, and most struggle to fit this around secondary employment.
This all means councillors are made up of bored rich people and ridiculously dedicated poor people. While it’s no bad thing to attract the latter, it really doesn’t matter how determined a person is; they’re not going to perform optimally if they’re working two jobs and dealing with all the stresses that entails.
Reform the councils
The Bristol Cable is an independent left-wing outlet, so it’s very interesting that Reform politicians are coming to the same radical conclusions as them.
In part, this may be because people signed up to Reform believing the magic thinking on austerity – i.e. that you can improve anything by spending less and less money on it – thinking which doesn’t hold up when you’re actually expected to deliver results. On the other hand, maybe they are all just greedy, and this is the first sign of them raiding the piggy bank.
Only time will tell, but we’re guessing we’ll see examples of both to one extent or another.
Looking at a list of Reform councillors who’ve jumped ship or got pushed since the May elections, there’s a real mix of people being sacked, people going independent, and people going further right. This suggests Reform isn’t vetting would-be councillors, and also that it’s doing a poor job explaining what it expects councillors to achieve in office.
On a final note, we’ll end this by saying good luck to our comrades in the Reform Party in their fight to secure fair pay for the local worker, and viva le revolution!
Featured image via Gage Skidmore (Flickr)
