Political Opinion: Lee Anderson's Weekly Column
Last week was a dark stain in Ashfield's history.
Here we have a Deputy District Council Leader who has once again been convicted of a crime in a court of law. This time Councillor Tom Hollis was found guilty of criminal damage, which adds onto his string of previous convictions.
What is worse, all of these convictions bar one have taken place whilst he has been Deputy Leader of Ashfield District Council. Forget the Nolan principles of public life which most politicians aspire to live up to, this is certainly not the kind of local politician that the residents of Ashfield deserve.
At a time when our local police are overstretched, Councillor Hollis' numerous misdemeanours and court appearances are adding to the current backlog of court cases in the justice system.
The fact that he has not resigned only shows his shamelessness. I have once again written to his group party leader, Jason Zadrozny, to urge him to remove Councillor Hollis from his position. Why he did not permanently remove him long ago is absolutely baffling. This is not a normal state for Ashfield politics to be in. How can we have a criminal as Deputy Leader of the local Council?
As the Ashfield Independents era in Ashfield politics comes to an end, this is the dark legacy that they will leave in Ashfield. And thanks to the Labour Government, it appears that residents won't even get the chance to vote them out as Local Government Reorganisation approaches and District Councils get the axe.
The good news is that the turquoise tsunami is here. We have already swept the board in Ashfield and Mansfield at the Nottinghamshire County Council elections earlier this year. As of last week, Reform UK is now the largest political party in Britain having overtaken the Labour Party's membership total.
Labour's membership has plummeted to below 250,000, meanwhile Reform UK boasts over 271,000 members. This is another huge milestone for our movement. It is incredible how much Reform UK has grown in the year and 9 months since I joined the party back in March 2024.
Going forward, Ashfield will be known as having been ahead of the curve as the capital of common sense. We are ready and more determined than ever to win the next General Election, boot this awful Labour Government out of office, and fix broken Britain.