Ex-Reform councillor details sexism from former colleagues

On 9 June, we reported that ex-Reform councillor Charlotte Kelly had defected to the Tories. Kelly blamed the move on sexism and bullying from her former colleagues. And since then, she’s come forwards to provide more information on what went down:

Ex-Reform UK councillor Charlotte Kelly admits she’s embarrassed to have ever joined the party.

She defected to the Conservatives yesterday – claiming she was bullied and faced sexism.

Reform UK says she was the source of ‘disharmony’ within the Staffordshire group. pic.twitter.com/kAtcvcVHfR

— Lewis Warner (@LewisJWarner) June 9, 2026

Former Reform councillor feels ’embarrassed’

In the video above, Kelly says:

I feel really sad and I feel embarrassed that I believed everything that they said because I fully bought in. I did. Now I just feel very let down.

It should be pointed out that the things Reform promises publicly are also very bad. And given the party’s hostility towards various minority groups – and women – Kelly shouldn’t be all that surprised to have discovered they were hostile towards her.

At the same time, this obviously doesn’t excuse the alleged bullying she had to put up with. We just hope Kelly’s experience helps others to avoid what she describes having experienced.

When asked how the last few days have been, Kelly said:

Stressful.

ITV’s Lewis Warner then explained:

Charlotte Kelly joined Reform UK hoping to make Leek a better place. But she says her time in the party has only made her own life worse. She alleges bullying, sexism and a culture that left her feeling isolated and ignored.

It would be interesting to know which Reform policies Kelly thought would improve her area, but the interview doesn’t get into that. Kelly responded:

It just seems to always be targeted at me. It’s not the men, it’s always me.

Kelly claims a female colleague told her the male Reform councillors couldn’t help themselves because of their age. We’re not sure how old they all are, but if this statement is true, they’re too old to be in the workplace.

Freeing

Kelly claims Reform does not tolerate any dissent whatsoever, and when asked how the party treats councillors, she answered:

I would say that as long as you do as you’re told, they’re fine, and as long as you don’t expect anything from head office, you just pretty much get left.

Kelly added that she had no freedom to express opinions, and that:

They want you to vote and say and just do as you’re told and whether or not you think it’s right, which isn’t… And I started to ask questions and speak out. And when I did, I was, especially from one particular person, reacted with swearing, abuse and… are really awful behaviour.

Kelly isn’t the first Reform councillor to make such claims, as we reported in this piece:

• Councillors claim Reform stopped them acting in local interest.

Defector Rob Parsonage said of the party:

He added: “We were being sent orders from above – they wanted us to vote down everything net zero and fight DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] – but in the end it turned into a conflict between the national agenda and the role of a councillor.”

Councillor Nick Brown, meanwhile, said:

When we took control [of Durham Council], I believed the messages from Nigel Farage that we would make big changes for people living locally.

But really, whenever we had a local issue, we were told to follow the party line. Not to rock the boat, bring press attention on the council. We all turned into Nigel’s yes-men – ordered to be on best behaviour to help him get to power.

Vetting issues?

Seemingly talking about the systemic issue of sexism, Kelly said:

they are not vetting correctly to see whether or not people have these views. When you present these issues and say that they’re there, that they’re not doing anything about it.

Reform definitely has an issue with sexism, much like it has an issue with every other form of bigotry. We don’t think the issue is that the party’s vetting is ‘failing’, however; we think Reform simply doesn’t care if its politicians hate women or people from minority groups.

Featured image via Leon Neal (Getty Images)