Who will lead Durham County Council now Reform UK have won?

In a sweeping and devastating result for the main parties, Reform won 65 seats with the Lib Dems winning 14 seats – the next highest total.

It raised questions over the governance of Durham County Council, as Reform had not controlled any councils before Friday’s spectacular results for Mr Farage and Co.

Previously, Reform had four representatives on the council after a number of defections in the run-up to the election. Those defections began with Cllr Robert Potts, previously a Conservative for Evenwood ward.

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He was elected to Durham County Council in 2021 and was the Conservative candidate for the police and crime commissioner (PCC) election in 2024, but came second to Labour’s Joy Allen. 

He has acted as the Reform group leader after three more councillors joined the party and appeared alongside Nigel Farage on a number of occasions in the campaign.

Earlier this year, party leader Nigel Farage issued a call for Tory councillors to quit and join his party. The Essex MP wrote to 1,352 Conservative county councillors as “a huge number of them genuinely agree with us and what we stand for”.