Reform UK ‘falling to pieces in Sheffield’ after alleged coup d'état

When Reform UK’s Sheffield East branch met at Wadsley Bridge Working Men’s Club to select their candidate for the upcoming Southey by-election, I’m told the mood was upbeat — at least at first. It was 10 June, which meant members were still basking in the afterglow of stellar local election results a month earlier, which saw the city’s first Reform councillor John Booker joined in the chamber by a dozen more. Unfortunately, by the end of that night, things were looking far less rosy. “It got nasty,” says one person present. Indeed, one of the main bones of contention between the warring sides seems to revolve around exactly who called whom a “fat bastard”.

The question of who should represent Reform in the by-election on 27 August — necessary after former Labour and then independent councillor Gareth Slater resigned due to “family commitments” — was not a trivial one. The party had managed to comfortably win the Southey seat that was up for grabs in May, so they were feeling confident they could secure this one too. Given two new Reform councillors, far-right flirt Nathaniel Menday and Mick Lee, had recently resigned from the party to act as independents, members were keen to bolster their numbers in the chamber.

And Reform UK’s Sheffield East branch was reportedly very happy with their preferred candidate: well-liked local member Mike Bell. However, what they’d hoped would be a formal rubber-stamping of their top choice quickly descended into bitterness and acrimony, a slanging match which saw everyone in the room hurling insults at each other. 

What caused this upset? According to those present, it was the arrival of the local party’s leader, Cllr John Hesketh, who represents Stocksbridge and Upper Don. A lengthy and seething Facebook post written by a member who attended the meeting alleges that the arrival of their exalted colleague “brought a wrecking ball” to that evening’s proceedings. Another person present, who does not want to be named, says that in his view Hesketh “deliberately went in there to cause havoc”.

Though it has proven impossible, despite my best efforts, to hear Hesketh's side of the story, I’m eventually able to secure a quick chat with the group’s deputy leader, Cllr John Booker. He tells me he “totally refutes” the accusations being lobbed at him and Hesketh by unhappy party members, before declining to “throw more fuel on the fire” by responding to their complaints. The row within the party is a “massive distraction”, he adds, from the work Reform needs to do “sorting things out” in Sheffield. 

Shortly before hanging up, he makes one more thing clear: “I have never been involved in any coup.”