Oldham trio’s Reform defection a ‘sign of coming wave’
Three of the borough’s councillors have joined the growing cohort of Greater Manchester representatives making the jump to Nigel Farage’s party in anticipation of May’s local elections, demonstrating the movement’s nationwide momentum.
Ex-Conservative Cllr Lewis Quigg of Royton North, a member of Oldham Council’s place, economic growth, and environment scrutiny board, is perhaps the highest-profile defection.
Failsworth West independents Cllr Mark Wilkinson and Cllr Sandra Ball have also joined the light blue party.
The three latest arrivals bring Reform’s tally of Greater Manchester councillors up to six.
Rochdale Council’s Cllr Jordan Tarrant-Short and Cllr John Taylor joined the party after Cllr Allan Hopwood of Tameside became the city region’s first Reform representative in April 2025.
The defections also come as Danny Kruger, MP for East Wiltshire, announced he would leave the Conservatives for Reform.
Rochdale’s Quigg said: “We have all been betrayed. Oldham needs leadership that puts people first. This is why I am joining Reform.
“For far too long, difficult truths have been ignored while ordinary families have been left behind. Instead of fighting for the people of Oldham, the opposition parties have colluded with Labour.
“We must restore power to the people who built this nation. Confront challenges with courage. Speak honestly about what needs to change. And most of all, we must deliver real results that matter to the people who call this nation their home.”
Cllr Wilkinson told Place North West: “I felt being an independent has lost credibility. Come the next elections, people might think to themselves, what’s the use in joining the independents if all they’re going to do is link up with Labour?
“I’ve moved across to Reform because I agree with a lot of things they do and say.”
The defections are emblematic of a wider national surge for the Reform Party and the clearest indication yet that the light blue wave is coming for GM.
“We’re going to be seeing a lot more Reform counsellors elected in GM in May”, said Kevin Whitmore, head of North & Midlands at political and public affairs consultancy Cavendish Consulting.
“If you look at the polling of Reform in the North West, they’re currently winning just over 30% of the vote – a couple of points ahead of Labour.”
He added that most Conservative councillors will be considering the move to be on the right side of the electorate by the next round of local elections.
“If you are of the political right and you’re up for re-election next year, and you want to win, it’s quite sensible to go to Reform,” said Whitmore.
The movement of two independent councillors to Reform indicates that the unaligned are also wary of a potential Reform candidate sweeping into their seat. However, both independents Cllr Wilkinson and Cllr Ball have more than two years left before they are up for re-election.
The timing of the rise in defections to Reform is no coincidence. Each autumn, parties begin thinking about selecting candidates and preparing for elections. Councillors may also consider defecting or whether they’re going to stand again.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more defections to Reform between now and Christmas”, Whitmore said.
“I would imagine they are the start of the wave that’s hitting places like Oldham, Rochdale, and soon Wigan, but also many of the other parts of GM as well.”
Due to elections in GM councils occurring in thirds, Reform leading councils by next year is unlikely. Instead, councils with a large Reform contingent could become common.
Whitmore said: “In May next year, then we’re going to see sizeable Reform groups in or running local authorities, not just in GM, but across the North.
“That means they’ll have positions on planning committees, they’re going to have votes and be around the table when it comes to things like planning. So at the very least, there’s going to be disruption.”
Key industry policies set out in Reform’s ‘Our Contract with You’ include fast-track planning with tax incentives for the development of brownfield sites, and incentivising the use of modular construction and digital technology in construction.
For the built environment, Reform’s rise will require adjusted communication, increased reliance on relationships with officers, and the forging of fresh relationships with newly elected representatives.
“The sector will have to think about how it engages with Reform and how it talks about what it wants to do – it will need to be prepared to frame the benefits of what they do,” added Whitmore.
This is particularly critical for projects that could be tied into Reform’s nationwide disdain for green technology and what it considers wasteful spending.
Instead of highlighting sustainability benefits, developers will need to frame their projects as beneficial to communities, providing jobs and energy security.
Stakeholders should prepare to lean into and grow relationships with officers, as it will be the officers who will have to help manage a more disparate local government landscape.
The fresh cohort of representatives does bring some advantages. While Reform comes across as a party with a plan set in stone, newcomers could be more receptive to private sector investment and what it could bring to their areas.
Whitmore said: “This is something people have got to get to grips with across the North. But we’ve seen from authorities where Reform is in control that they’re quite open to engagement with the private sector and understanding more about it, what drives it, and what the challenges are.”
I’m not sure either the Tories or Labour have fully grasped what’s headed their way. This is a portent of what’s to come.
By Anonymous
Next year’s elections feel like a watershed. Labour for all it’s shortcomings has built a growth model for GM that’s be successful, but everyone recognised how uneven the gains have been , and politically unstable places like Oldham and Rochdale were becoming. It’s good reason for Burnham to stick around to keep things moving. My hunch is Reform are quite NIMBY, but will be constrained by PfE, NPPF, and the new planning act.
By Rich X
“Instead of highlighting sustainability benefits, developers will need to frame their projects as beneficial to communities, providing jobs and energy security.” – surely these are all factors that can be considered ‘sustainability benefits’?
By Rennalp
A representative for environmental scrutiny joining reform? Can’t wait to see their position on fracking…
By Levelling Up Manager
People seem to waking up at last. I only hope it can be sustained come election time. Both Labour and the Tories need to be consigned firmly to where they belong …the past. The same old lies, the name calling, the constantly broken promises the ‘it’s their fault because…’ excuses. People only have to look around to see reality without having it carefully filtered on tv and social media. I only hope people vote with whatever their convictions tell them and not settle for the status quo again.
By Anonymous
Fair play to giving an interview and releasing comments.
I can see Labour losing control of Oldham, Wigan, Bolton, Bury, Tameside and Rochdale by the end of the decade.
By Heritage Action
Bunch of failed tories jump ship to join a political party made up of malcontents with no credible policies who will be found out before the next general election.
By Anonymous
All eyes on Burnham to see where his loyalties really lie
By Anonymous
“The defections are emblematic of a wider national surge for the Reform Party and the clearest indication yet that the light blue wave is coming for GM.”
I thought this was a property and development news website, not a mouthpiece for a political party?
By Sten
Please can we stop Place becoming yet another political soap box? It’s so much better to concentrate on facts rather than unpleasant battles.
By Alan P
Labour are finished, just waiting to be voted out across the country and good riddance
By Anonymous
I remember the days when Place was not focussed on politics. Who cares what these politicians do, they’re all useless.
By Anonymous
Problem for Burnham is beyond the shiny baubles in Manchester and Salford what has he got to show in Oldham, Rochdale and other outlying boroughs?
By Anonymous
My house is going up for sale before these jokers have a chance to take over. I don’t want to be around when all the recent good work is destroyed and the region collapsed into conflict.
By Shuv
Like it or not, the political angle is actually very important to developers and investors, who tend to look for certainty and stability in Town Halls before they even start working up schemes.
This is before we get into the potential for more antics over Places for Everyone and otherwise refusing to play nice with GMCA and the Government.
It keeps Mr Whitmore and his competitors in work after all…
By Anonymous
Reform UK = Re-Formed Conservatives. The same people who spent 14 years trashing the country have had a rebrand and hope we won’t notice.
By Clare
Burnham is doing very little to tackle the North/South divide in GM. Whilst Manchester, Stockport, Trafford and Salford boom, towns like Oldham get a cinema and a landscaped garden, plus a tram which takes twice as long to get to Manchester, as the original train.
By Elephant
Surely it should be made harder for people to change party, the people who voted for them voted for principles of their party at the time. To just change isn’t respectful of the public. There should be a new election, make people think twice about the change.
By Anonymous
Can’t believe people see what’s happening in the US with Trump and think “yeah I’d like that level of destruction for the UK”. Mindless
By Anonymous
Not hard to agree with @elephant and others here that hope has turned up a day late and a dollar short in the north of GM. Looking Burnham’s tenure could he have done more? Metrolink to the Trafford Centre was baked in when he arrived in 2017, the Bee Network feels like a way to allow more people to access higher value employment in Manchester, but not necessarily in your home town (which makes sense economically, but is cold comfort if you are in Oldham and Rochdale). Missing the original for PfE feels like the main own goal, that could have kick started more development in the North of the city region earlier.
By Rich X
I know that both tories and labour have failed us over and over again, but please, for the love of god, do not vote that moron Farage.
By Anonymous
People voting with their conscience at last. That must be a good thing despite the obvious cognitive dissonance from those who clearly believe that those who don’t think their way are always wrong. Life must truly come as a surprise when change is delivered.
By Anonymous
The USA argument is very different, so many different factors at play there, people are waking up to that kind of ‘dog whistle’ as a false argument for change. As to it being seen as a ‘bad’ thing I’ve found it very much depends where you get your news sources from. People do tend to live in their own bubbles when it comes to news because they can hence the surprise when change comes as in Oldham and then the rage is only amplified because, well ‘how could they ! ‘ It’s still a democracy though and change must be delivered at the ballot box, not through rage and intimidation. Thats one path we don’t want to follow America down.
By Anonymous
People think being cynical is a substitute for being clued up. The old ‘oh they’re all the same’ argument.
In reality, for the most part, most politicians are just ordinary people who want the same thing everyone else does which is to make the country better. Sure a minority are self serving, lazy, deceitful or incompetent but I suspect no more than in any other part of society.
The uncomfortable truth is that the news cycle moves in weeks or even days; the cycle on social media in days, hours or minutes. There are vast numbers of people who want to create heat out of very little. But investment cycles take years. Whether that’s big infrastructure projects, housing, public amenities, private investment into new businesses, research labs, machinery, recruitment. All this takes time to implement and even longer to see results.
As such the only politician to be cynical of is the one offering easy, quick, superficially attractive solutions. There’s only one party behaving like that at the moment and it’s the one riding high in the polls at the moment. Expect them to struggle once a light is shone on their actual policies.
By Anonymous
It sad that name calling has already been allowed to appear in the comments. If arguments cannot be made by reason they can never be won by rage.
By Steph
Some people are scared of change and yet it’s already happening, in Oldham and in many places. Sadly there isn’t a party out there that has easy choices to make. The light has already been shone on the present incumbents policies though, censorship, bluster and a complete mismanagement of the economy due to err.. ’difficult’ circumstances. Get the economy right and many people forget about everything else, although I sense that this time may be different. But they won’t get the economy right. They never do.
By Anonymous
I’m sorry anonymous 11.04 but that whooshing sound is you missing the point completely of why this has happened. People are neither as stupid or as cynical as you’d like to make out. They live in reality and don’t need to be gatekeepered by those who like to tell them what’s good for them.
By Anonymous
Why vote for labour or conservative. Both are losers now
By Anonymous
Lewis Quigg has been a brilliant ally to the Green Belt campaigners in Oldham. Labour are hanging on by their fingertips and will be gone next May. Once Labour loses control of the council we will be moving on to our next project which is mounting a referendum to remove Oldham from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority!
By Save Oldham's Greenbelt