What happens now Reform has ‘taken back control’ in Durham?

Less than one year ago, the people of County Durham returned six out of six MPs for Labour. Northumberland voted Labour in four out of four. On Thursday, Northumberland Labour dropped from 21 seats in 2021, to just eight. In Durham, from 53 seats to just four. Four. Yes, there are fewer seats with the boundary changes, but this is beyond defeat. It is obliteration. And Reform has taken control.

Labour’s vote collapsed because people are rightly angry

How can a party collapse so quickly?

Well, it didn’t. Durham voted Brexit. People at bus stops weren’t discussing the intricacies of the European Central Bank. They were bemoaning the price of buses. Boarded up shops. No school places nearby. Youths on noisy motorbikes intimidating pedestrians.

One resident of a former pit village told me:

We haven’t even got a supermarket here.

The Brexit vote was a howl of pain.

In 2019, the land of the Durham Miners’ Gala returned three Tory MPs. This year, just one of 24 Tory councillors survives from the 2021 local elections. The people gave them a chance. They failed to deliver. So the people voted them out.

In July last year, the people gave Labour a chance. Boy, were they betrayed quickly. Winter fuel allowance. Impoverishing disabled people. Still no buses. Still the shops are boarded up while the prices keep going up.

Reform has 65 of 98 seats on Durham County Council. Its vote is a coalition of two angry groups. Those who are angry at life. At immigrants. Trans people. Vaccines. Tofu. Recycling. Green energy. To them I say, haters gonna hate.

And a much larger group who are angry with supermarket prices. At working long hours and still slipping into debt. At paying in all your life, then having your Winter Fuel Allowance taken away.

To them I say, you’re right to be angry. But Nigel Farage is not on your side. He’s part of the same snake-oil selling establishment who has been selling you out for a long, long time. Helping the rich get richer, while delivering a reality of ill health and insecure work.

Reform has taken back control, so what now?

What happens now that Reform has taken back control? Will they fix Durham? Or just blame someone else? Voters don’t like that. They expect you to fix something. They know you can’t fix everything everywhere, all at once. But if your park is still covered in glass after four years, they will hold you to account.

What Brexit broke was not the tradition of voting Labour. It broke the tradition of voting by tradition. Will Reform even hold together? Its four MPs have managed to start suing each other. Will they be falling out before the leaves fall off the trees?

Newcastle has all-out council elections in 2026. Labour has already lost overall control through resignations. It has a £40m debt liability for the Crowne Plaza hotel. It has cost us £7m through the failed profit-making parks trust, implemented by now North East Mayor Kim McGuinness. Child poverty is up. The new Metros are not in service. No one seems to be in charge, or capable of delivering anything. The Gateshead flyover is still closed. And no one takes responsibility.

Instead, all we get are slavish repetition of national talking points:

Everything is fine, and it’s all the Tories’ fault.

We need people who will stand up for our region. Who are not terrified of telling the truth for fear of being politically executed by party apparatchiks. We need a credible alternative.

Exactly one year ago, I polled 25,000 votes in Newcastle compared to Labour’s 26,000 votes. There is a desire for better politics and higher standards. I want to see a coalition that will actually represent the people, not the parties. I want independents involved, and Greens if they are up for it. For the people leaving Labour – and there are many – to be part of it. To use citizens’ assemblies to set policy priorities.

We need politicians who will put local people first, and who are not beholden to party HQs or toeing the party line. Our first assembly is on Sunday 18 May in the Discovery Museum. You can book on the Majority website. Get yourself along.

Featured image via the Canary