Reform councillors admit to not understanding how councils work at failed meeting to elect leader
'We don’t know the rules'
Kirklees Council has failed to elect a leader after Reform councillors admitted that they did not understand council rules at a chaotic meeting yesterday.
Reform is now the largest party at Kirklees Council with 29 out of the 69 seats, but falls short of a majority.
At the meeting, two councillors were put forward for leader, Reform UK’s Sarah Wood and Green group leader Andrew Cooper.
Cooper was able to stand because if all opposition parties including the Greens, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Independents backed him, he could have secured the numbers to win.
According to local news website, the Huddersfield Hub, councillors struggled to elect a leader after the Conservatives refused to back either Cooper or Wood, resulting in a stalemate.
One councillor then proposed a ‘head-to-head’ vote to break the deadlock, while another suggested to ‘suspend all standing orders’ so councillors could ask questions of both leadership candidates.
This then caused exasperation and confusion among Reform councillors, who said they didn’t understand what these terms meant.
In her speech, Councillor Wood admitted: “I don’t understand the constitution, I don’t understand what standing orders are, what they’re made up of, nor do I understand what an amendment is.”
Wood said this was because she hadn’t had time to read the constitution since being elected on 7 May.
She added: “We might vote for something that we don’t understand at the moment.”
Wood also said that even if councillors were to “slow down and describe it properly”, Reform councillors would still not understand the constitution.
Out of the 27 newly-elected Reform councillors, only one has prior experience as a councillor.
She then suggested it would be “unconstitutional” for newly-elected councillors to have to vote on any motions they didn’t understand.
Another Reform councillor, Robert Butler, also stood up to say that he “genuinely didn’t understand” what was going on.
Tanisha Bramwell, an Independent councillor, then intervened, stating: “When you are elected you have to prioritise educating yourself on how to be the best councillor and representative for your area, that’s on you.”
She said that to call that “unconstitutional” was “absolutely incorrect”.
“We will also make sure that our residents are absolutely aware of who has competence in this chamber and who doesn’t,” councillor Bramwell added.
The meeting to elect a council leader at Kirklees Council will now convene next Thursday.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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