Bolsover councillor leaves Conservative Party to join Reform UK Party and says 'the majority of her ward members share her views'

The former Leader of the council’s Conservative Group announced this week that she has joined Reform UK because she claims the Conservative Party is incapable of leading the centre right of British politics and she added that it has squandered years of Government funding in high taxes, high state control and high immigration.

Coun Carol Wood’s move means the Labour-controlled district council’s political landscape now leaves only two Conservative councillors and she will be the sole Reform UK councillor alongside a further 31 Labour councillors and three Independents at the local authority.

The Bolsover South councillor, who had supported the former Conservative Bolsover MP Mark Fletcher, said: “It was clear during my General Election campaigning that whilst everyone agreed Mark had been a great local MP for us and achieved significant benefits for Bolsover, they could no longer tolerate or support the Conservative main Party.

“Some 7,000 did still vote for Mark, but some 6,000 voted Reform after just five short weeks of campaigning after [Reform UK MP] Nigel Farage declared.

“When I was considering my move I spoke to some of my most loyal supporters and all but one either apologetically admitted they’d already voted Reform or confirmed that now Mark had gone they would be voting Reform in future elections.

“I realised that I was worrying whether my constituents would follow me, but it turned out the ship had already sailed and I was only now paddling to catch up with the view of the majority of my voters.”

Coun Wood added she believes the only reason the majority of residents in Bolsover and other seats in the Labour Red Wall stronghold areas voted Conservative in 2019 for the very first time ever, was for former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brexit.

She said: “We were betrayed when they unseated Boris, and [former PM Rishi] Sunak failed to complete Brexit in respect of immigration and our borders.

“We are honest, straightforward folk who don’t take kindly to betrayal and lies. Then Reform was saying out loud what we were all thinking, and we thought, ‘Gosh’. This is amazing.

“We have hope for the future, and we have the power to make that future real. The Conservatives are never coming back to the Red Wall and Labour seem to be trying to bury themselves in a similar way.”

Coun Wood insists residents in her Bolsover South ward, as well as Bolsover district residents, share her views and concerns because they had told her as much on their doorsteps when she had been campaigning for the Conservative Party’s Bolsover candidate, Mark Fletcher, during the build up to the General Election.

She added: “I campaigned with Mark all over Bolsover district, trying to persuade them to at least keep him in Bolsover for us for fear of the alternative, even though we acknowledged the main party could have done better. I am at one with my constituents.”

The retired IT project manager claims the former Bolsover district mining community was disappointed by the Conservative Party’s handling of Brexit so she believes both she and her constituents are determined to have a Reform Government in 2029, preceded by a Reform Derbyshire County Council in 2025, and a Reform Bolsover District Council in 2027.

Reform UK Chief Whip and MP for nearby Ashfield, Lee Anderson, said: “I am delighted to welcome Carol to the fold, she knows that Reform UK is the only possible opposition to Labour’s drive to undermine everything this country has always stood for.

“All over the country I am welcoming councillors who have seen the light. They want to tackle back control, and Reform is the way to do it”.

Bolsover District Council stated that it is not able to comment on political issues.

Coun Wood’s move leaves Bolsover District Council’s Conservative Group Deputy Leader, Coun Will Fletcher, who oversees the Clowne West ward, and fellow Conservative district Coun Louise Fox, whose ward is South Normanton West, as the only Conservatives on the local authority.

The district council’s Conservative Group Deputy Leader, Coun William Fletcher, has been asked whether he is expected to take on the vacant role of the council’s new Conservative Group Leader but at the time of publication, Coun Fletcher has not yet released a statement.

Coun Wood added she was in full communication with the Conservative Party and councillors during the lead up to her move to Reform UK and she remains in ‘friendly, informal collaboration’ with the Conservative councillors.

Reform UK’s interim Bolsover Chairperson Rob Reaney said: “I am delighted to welcome Carol. She has been a fantastic representative for Bolsover for years, and will continue to be so on behalf of her constituents and Reform UK.”