Warwickshire councillor who defected to Reform wants to sort their lack of policies
THE former leader of the Conservative group at Stratford District Council who defected to Reform UK, has rigorously defended her decision. After coming under fire from furious former colleagues, she has hit back by branding them “desperate”.
Cllr Sarah Whalley-Hoggins’s bombshell announcement on Thursday that she’d ditched the Tories to join Nigel Farage’s party sent shockwaves through her former party. The former headteacher and police officer has been blasted by the chairman of Stratford Conservatives Rich Walters, who accused her of “cynical” timing designed to cause the Conservatives “maximum damage in the run up to county council elections”.
But in an exclusive interview with the Herald, Cllr Whalley-Hoggins denied this and asked: “When would the timing ever be good for the Conservatives at the moment?”
In a scathing and at times personal attack, Mr Walters also claimed the councillor had “abused” the Tory party’s “investment of trust and resources” and seemed to call for her to resign as a councillor.
He added: “It is incredibly disappointing and speaks to a lack of political conviction and deficit of Conservative values. Our Conservative family has been betrayed but so too have the residents of her ward. They elected a Conservative – they now have something wholly different.
“The councillor has given no indication they intend to do the decent thing and step down.”
And in a joint broadside, interim Conservative group leader at SDC, Cllr Malcolm Littlewood, slammed Cllr Whalley-Hoggins’ defection as having “bitterly let the Conservative group at Stratford District Council down”. He claimed: “…it is clear that this action had been a long time in her planning which makes betrayal all the more cutting”.
But Cllr Whalley-Hoggins fired back: “Would I have expected anything less from the Conservatives, who are clearly worried about the number of seats they’re going to win? I sent a very polite note to the group and was fulsome in my praise of Malcolm Littlewood as a deputy, so it’s regrettable they’ve taken the tone they have. It’s precisely because I have political conviction that I’ve gone to Reform UK. Political conviction needs to be separated from Conservative brainwashing of ‘our way is the only way’.
“Up until two days ago, I’ve worked incredibly hard for the Conservatives and, actually, the attitudes displayed here show my convictions are well-founded and justified.
“I’m afraid the Conservatives are yet again, looking for reasons for failure at the election, when we already knew it was going to be a hard battle. If I’m going to be used as a scapegoat for failures, it shows what a lack of insight the party and the branch has.”
The councillor, who is not standing in the county council elections, explained she’d been thinking about defecting “for a long time” and it was “not a knee-jerk reaction”.
Her move is due to her “disillusionment with the Conservatives”, present “on many levels”, she said.
“I’ve been driven to go into public office because I want to make a difference. My record stands as a councillor that works passionately for my ward and the issues they face and I stand on that record, but I know that in order to make a bigger difference, it needs me to go to Reform UK.”
She added: “As a woman in politics, it’s always very tough. You face barriers you never, ever perceived were going to be there and I’m hoping that by moving to Reform UK, I can escape some of the petty jealousies that have been going on, move forward and draw a line under this because, ultimately, I’m here to serve people that need a voice.”
Cllr Whalley-Hoggins admitted women are also “underrepresented in Reform UK” and said she believes she “has a lot to offer the party”.
“I have an impressive CV and do call things out, so it’s time for me to move forward,” she said. “I can no longer do that, in all honesty, as a Conservative, because it’s just more of the same.”
She added: “Some of the policies for Reform – there’s not a lot of policies – were written rapidly and I think some of those policies will be rewritten, and other policies will come forward. There is time to do that and I’m hoping very much that I can be involved in that aspect of working with Reform.”
She praised the ‘blue water’ Nigel Farage has put between Reform UK and far-right activist Tommy Robinson and former Reform, now independent, MP Rupert Lowe, describing some of their views as “unacceptable”. And while applauding Reform UK’s tough line on immigration, she said: “There is no part in my life and never will be, that will tolerate racism. The row going on is because of the distancing that’s going on and I’m heartened by that because it means that this party means business.
“Illegal immigration is dangerous for many of the people coming across, not least of all because of the dangerous crossings that they’re doing – it needs to be dealt with.”
Talking again about her disillusionment with local politics in Stratford, she added: “It’s just more of the same under different guises – wearing a different rosette and sitting on different sides of a room but it won’t do any more. I continue to want to make a difference and going to Reform UK will enable me to make, I feel, the biggest difference.”
Asked why she feels she can no longer represent the Conservatives, she replied: “We had 14 years to sort this out. The fact that we lost the general election in such a spectacular style, and we’ve got such a massive Labour majority that can do whatever they like to whoever they like. Responsibility has to be taken and that’s not what the Conservatives are doing – they’re not taking collective responsibility for this state of affairs. All Conservatives seem to do is to say, ‘Well, people shouldn’t have voted Labour, should they?’ But actually, people just didn’t want to vote for the Conservatives anymore, and I’m now one of those people.”
She added: “It is preposterous to think that my defection to Reform UK could affect the result of the forthcoming county council elections and to use me as an excuse for their impending failure is ridiculous. These campaigns have been running since November.”
The petition
FURIOUS Conservatives have launched a petition (they are calling it more of a survey) to unseat their former district group leader, in retaliation for her ditching them for Reform UK.
Last week when district councillor for Brailes and Compton and former Conservative lLeader Sarah Whalley-Hoggins resigned from their party, Stratford Conservatives set up the petition aimed at pressuring her to call a by-election.
Published on the party’s website and social media, it says: “Residents in Brailes and Compton elected a Conservative councillor in May 2023 and they have something very different without consultation. If the councillor felt strongly enough to defect, should they have to face the electorate and allow them to make their own mind up?
“Respond to our petition today, should they resign immediately and stand by the strength of their convictions?”
The Conservatives told the Herald they were asking two questions: ‘Having left the Conservative Party for another, should the councillor for Brailes and Compton resign and trigger a by-election?’ and ‘Should a by-election be automatically triggered when a councillor joins a party they were not elected for?’
In the three days since the petition launched it’s attracted 50 responses with an “overwhelmingly number responding ‘yes’ to both questions.”
The Facebook post about the petition launch gathered six comments, mainly negative, and flurry of emojis.
One accused the Tories of “double standards”, pointing out that when Cllr Daren Pemberton defected from the Lib Dems to the Conservatives in 2013, they did not call for a by-election.
Another person pointed out: “…you have never ever complained when national politicians or councillors have defected to your party in the past. Minimal chance of anybody doing that now...”
Ex-leader was under pressure
THE fall-out from a councillor’s shock defection to Reform UK continues to make waves.
A source within Stratford Conservatives told the Herald there had been grumblings about former Conservative group leader Cllr Sarah Whalley Hoggins’ leadership.
They said: “She was told last Tuesday that there was going to be a leadership challenge.”
And they added the councillor for Brailes and Compton is expected to stand for Reform UK in the next general election, fighting for a constituency in the north of the county.
