We will work with other parties, Reform says

A senior member of Reform UK has said the party will "of course" work with other West Midlands councillors, following success in the recent local elections.

Reform now controls a number of councils across England - including Staffordshire County Council - and is the largest block on several other authorities where overall control remains in the balance.

"Of course we have to work with other parties," Reform's West Midlands regional director Pete Durnell told the BBC's Politics Midlands programme on Sunday.

Reform won 677 seats in the 1 May voting - three more than the Tories lost - and also saw victories in two mayoral competitions and a parliamentary by-election.

In all, the party is in control of 10 local authorities nationwide, including Staffordshire. Elsewhere in the Midlands, it has a majority on Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Durnell on Sunday tried to clear up a seeming contradiction between the words of two newly-elected councillors.

Owen Cleary, who took the Worcester seat of Warndon & Elbury Park for Reform, told the BBC following his win: "We don't have any intention of making alliances."

But in a separate interview, the party's chairman for Warwick and Leamington, Nigel Clarke, said: "We've always said on a local level we're happy to work with the Conservatives."

Durnell insisted: "There's no contention there."

He said Reform would especially have to work with other parties in areas such as Warwickshire and Worcestershire, where it had the most seats but not outright control.

"But," he added, echoing Reform leader Nigel Farage's words during an appearance in Stafford on Friday, "that doesn't mean to say that we're not also here to replace the Tory party as the Opposition."

Appearing alongside Durnell was Max Wilkinson, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, who suggested his party might be the one to overtake the Tories.

The Lib Dems are now in control of Shropshire Council, after winning a clear majority in the election last week.

"It's really interesting to note that while the Conservative vote, and the Labour vote, collapsed against Reform, the Lib Dem vote... has held up really strongly," he said.

"And that's why we are in pole position to become the party of Middle England at the next election, taking over from the Conservatives."

Mark Garnier, the Conservative MP for Worcestershire's Wyre Forest - where Reform won eight of 10 seats - told the programme he was confident the Tories would bounce back.

Garnier said the rising popularity of Reform, the Lib Dems and the Greens meant the days of two-party politics were over.

"When you look at somewhere like Wyre Forest... the right-of-centre vote is still very strong," he said. "But it is being split, and this is what we saw at the general election.

"But this is the uncertainty of something more than a two-party political system. We really now do have certainly four, if not five [parties]."

The Labour MP for the Staffordshire constituency of Tamworth, Sarah Edwards, said her party's performance at the local elections - losing 187 seats nationally - was "disappointing".

But she suggested it may have been partly down to people expecting Labour to have done more since coming into government last year.

"We're 10 months into power now, and so have had to make various decisions, following on obviously from the Conservatives. So I think it is fair to say that some people have wanted to see more things.

"We are trying to make sure that those changes are happening as fast as possible.

"But it does take time."