Freeloading Reform councillor in it for thrills and perks

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that a Reform UK county councillor — Shaun Knowles — has sent just two emails since his election in May. He’s also attended the bare minimum number of meetings to avoid automatically losing his seat.

We would say that this is a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money. However, it’s not actually ‘shocking’ at all, is it? This is literally just par for the course for Reform UK.

In spite of the BBC’s insistence on giving them airtime, Reform have just five actual MPs. Party leader Nigel Farage is famous for not bothering to do his fucking job. It won a vaguely impressive number of councillors in May, but an eye-watering number of them have since packed their bags.

The party is doing well in terms of purely hypothetical votes in several years’ time. It isn’t fit to lead. What’s more, it’s clearly unfit to represent a small local council constituency. Reform UK are a loose collection of bigoted chancers who are out for all they can grift.

‘Abusing the system’

The Northumberland county councillor has drawn £9,340 of his local government salary over his 6-and-a-bit months in office.

From his election in May up until mid November, Knowles received 948 emails. However, an FOI revealed that his official address has sent just two emails.

Knowles has also attended just one council meeting in November. This is fortunate, given that 6 months of consecutive non-attendance would have seen him lose his seat automatically.

Conservative councillor Wayne Daley sent the FOI after his Cramlington South West constituents complained that Knowles doesn’t reply to them. Daley likewise tried to get in touch with Knowles, but to no avail.

In an interview regarding Knowles’ absence, Daley told the Independent:

It makes me so angry that someone who has been elected is basically abusing the system and abusing the people who have put their faith in him, it’s appalling.

I’ve tried to contact him, I’ve emailed him multiple times, called him, sent a text and had nothing back. He is in a party who say they are interested in value for money – yet he has claimed every single penny of his allowance for doing nothing.

Daley went on:

In reality, he has one option which is to resign. He is letting constituents down and his party. He is ripping his constituents off by giving them no support – he is completely absent.

This is why people should see that what Reform say and what Reform do are completely different things.

Learning from the best

Reform councillor Knowles clearly learned from the best – party leader Farage is also well known for doing sweet fuck all. Back when he was an MEP, his attendance rate was absolutely abysmal. Yeah yeah, he was in the anti-EU part – of course he didn’t turn up.

Except that he doesn’t actually turn up or do his job now he’s an MP, either. He doesn’t speak or vote in parliament even when he gets the opportunity. Worse, he doesn’t spend any time in his actual constituency, Clacton, either.

The Reform leader claimed that the House Speaker had advised him not to hold the in-person surgeries in his constituency due to security concerns. However, it emerged one month later that this was a bare-faced lie, and the Speaker had told him no such thing.

What do Reform actually do?

Since the general election, Reform have had 5 MPs in total. That ties them with the Democratic Unionist Party as the UK’s sixth largest political party (or seventh, if you count the independents). They’re just one seat ahead of the Greens. And yet the BBC insist on giving Farage the attention and legitimacy he craves.

On a local level, Reform did well in the May council elections, gaining 677 seats. However, since that time more than 40 of its councillors have left the party or been sacked. We’d quote the names here, but the Canary style guide forbids quotes that long – here’s a handy list though.

So yeah, sure — it is a shocking waste of taxpayer money that councillor Knowles is taking his salary and not doing his job. Yes, it’s incredible that he sent fewer emails in six months than someone might normally send in a day. Absolutely, it’s a betrayal of the constituents who elected him as their representative.

But also, it’s hardly a surprise now, is it?

Featured image via the Canary