Reform takes Essex after Tories controlled it for 25 years

The local elections aren’t just a blow to Labour, as the Conservative Party is also rapidly losing seats to Reform UK. It comes to something when the Tories aren’t fascist enough.

Reform UK has taken control of Essex County Council, a county which has been run by the Conservatives for the last 25 years.

BREAKING:

Reform declares that it has won Essex County Council with ***24*** seats left to declare

This is particularly significant given that Kemi Badenoch’s constituency is in Essex along with a significant tranche of her shadow Cabinet

Essex has long been the Conservative… pic.twitter.com/2sWoBJ1RgB

— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) May 8, 2026

Reform storms through

Significantly, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and a good chunk of her cabinet are MPs in Essex.

Reform took 54 of the 75 county council seats in Essex, including leader of the council Kevin Bentley’s seat in Stanway and Pyefleet, Colchester. Bentley had been leader of the council since 2021 and a councillor since 2009. He lost by over 500 votes.

At Southend’s count, two Green councillors turned their backs as Reform councillors were declared the winners.

The rest of the council is so far made up of 11 Tories, four Lib Dems, four independent candidates, one Green, and one Labour. There are still three seats to be declared.

Essex doesn’t care who they’re electing

This is the man who posted that it was ‘good’ Sikh women were raped in Sandwell and Walsall. He’s now an elected Reform Councillor. Will you immediately suspend him from your party @Nigel_Farage? https://t.co/PRZ3hVdDy9

— Sarah Coombes for West Bromwich (@SarahCoombesWB) May 8, 2026

Stuart John Prior won the Sweyne Park & Grange seat in Rochford, Essex, despite the fact that Labour MPs implored Nigel Farage to sack him after tweets were uncovered where he celebrated the rapes of two Sikh women.

Essex, like much of the country, is proof that they don’t care who they’re electing when hate is already ruling the election.

Featured image via the Canary