Reform unveils new Durham County Council Cabinet leadership team

The party unveiled its new leadership team in charge of County Durham’s key decisions at today’s (Wednesday, May 21) annual council meeting. 

Cllr Andrew Husband was elected as leader of the council in an uncontested vote. The new deputy leader, Cllr Darren Grimes, will combine his role with being the portfolio holder for Finance, Policy and Communications. 

Durham County Council’s previous Neighbourhood and Climate Change position has been renamed Neighbourhoods and Environment, while Equality and Inclusion is now called Stronger Communities and Belonging. 

Left to right: Reform’s Andrew Husband, Darren Grimes, Joe Quinn, Stephen Gray, Lyndsey Fox (Image: Stuart Boulton)

Explaining the rebrand, Cllr Husband said: “There were a couple of portfolios labelled in a way that we didn’t agree with. We have made the changes with integrity without doing anything too drastic.

“Closing portfolios down at this stage would have been a shooting-from-the-hip reaction. Let’s see if we can adapt them and make them better.” 

The new council leader added that the party has appointed the “right people for the right job”. 

Councillors Joe Quinn and Cathy Hunt, who both defected from the Conservative Party earlier this year, also landed key roles. Ferryhill’s Cllr Quinn will head up the council’s Resources, Investments and Assets portfolio, while Willington and Hunwick’s Cllr Hunt will oversee the Children and Young People’s Services department. 

The new Durham County Council cabinet 

Andrew Husband – Leader 

Darren Grimes – Finance, Policy and Communications 

Joe Quinn – Resources, Investments & Assets 

Karen Allison – Neighbourhoods & Environment 

Nicola Lyons – Stronger Communities & Belonging 

Cathy Hunt – Children & Young People’s Services 

Stephen Gray – Digital & Customer Services

Tim McGuinness – Rural Communities & Highways 

Howard Brown – Adult & Health Services 

Lyndsey Fox – Economy & Partnerships

Cllr Husband recently played down a warning from Nigel Farage that council staff working on diversity or climate change initiatives should seek “alternative careers”, saying abolishing such departments immediately would be “naive” and staff should not be concerned. 

He instead said that the party will take its time to review council data before making any decisions, vowing to prioritise “common sense policies”. 

“We have to work with transparency and we want to share as much information as we can with the public and do things differently,” Cllr Husband added.

“We have to do the due diligence and take our time to make sure we have the right information to fulfil our objectives.”

He highlighted the current role of the council’s carbon management team as one which could be assessed.

The member for Chester-le-Street North added: “ I’m not saying it’s going to get chopped tomorrow, but I’m really interested to see what that team does and the functions in that department. One avenue of Reform’s interest is to establish whether it is justified and what we could do differently.”

Labour councillor Rob Crute said he was unsurprised by Reform’s decision to rename some of the council’s portfolios to fit the party’s agenda.

“They made threats against people that worked here, so it will be a challenge for them to deliver on what Nigel Farage threatened them with.”

Reform’s 65 new councillors also voted through new rules giving the party and its members greater autonomy over committee and scrutiny meetings. Political rivals likened the reformed scrutiny process to the party marking its homework. 

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Independent councillor Chris Lines, former Vice-Chair of the council’s scrutiny management board, said: “The role of scrutiny is to hold the executive to account and best practice is clearly for that function to be chaired by a councillor who is not a member of the governing party.

“Through Scrutiny, the Reform administration will now effectively be marking its own homework. Not only is the principle of this wrong, but it is also particularly worrying in the context of the inexperience of so many of the councillors who are now running such a large local authority.

“The guardrails are off and that’s not good news for Durham County Council, its public sector partners, the business community, the environment, or residents in every part of our county.”

Cllr Crute added: “Scrutiny is our first opportunity to hold them to account. We will not be doing that for political purposes alone, it’s on behalf of the people in County Durham who put their faith in Reform and expect to see change. People are inpatient, they want to see change now, and we will make sure that through the scrutiny function, they do everything they can to deliver on those promises.”