{"id":34845,"date":"2026-05-12T17:10:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34845\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:10:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:10:37","slug":"reform-uk-councillor-resigns-from-role-just-days-after-local-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34845\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK councillor resigns from role just days after local elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reform UK councillor Stuart Prior has resigned after being elected last week<\/p>\n<p>15:25, 11 May 2026Updated 15:26, 11 May 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A Reform UK rosette\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_JAJ_TEM_020525LocalElection_033JPG.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"A Reform UK councillor for Essex County Council and for Rochford District Council has resigned \" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">A Reform UK councillor for Essex County Council and for Rochford District Council has resigned (Image: Joseph Raynor\/ Reach PLC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/reform-uk\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Reform UK<\/a> councillor has resigned from his elected position just days after the <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/local-elections\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">local elections<\/a>. It comes after the councillor was accused of making racist social media posts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Stuart Prior, who denied making racist posts when approached by the Daily Mirror newspaper, was elected last week as a Reform UK councillor for Essex County Council and for Rochford District Council. It had previously been alleged by campaign group Hope Not Hate that Prior had described white people as &#8220;the master race&#8221; and suggested white people have &#8220;larger brains&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A Reform UK source revealed that Prior has now resigned from his elected position, and has had his party membership revoked. On Monday, the source said: &#8220;Stuart Prior informed us that he was resigning from his elected positions for personal reasons. We have also revoked his Reform UK membership.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a aria-label=\"Click hereLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=b8052254-66af-41f3-9dae-7bbb0e3391c6&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Prior had been elected to Rayleigh West division for Essex County Council and to Sweyne Park and Grange ward for Rochford District Council, both with about 40% of the vote. Reform UK won control of Essex County Council from the <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/conservative-party\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">Conservatives<\/a> on Friday, winning 53 of the 78 seats up for election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">An Essex County Council spokesperson said: &#8220;We have had confirmation that the successful candidate for Rayleigh West has resigned from their position as a county councillor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;We also understand they have resigned from their role as a councillor for Rochford District Council. Officers from both authorities will work together to co-ordinate by-elections, with arrangements communicated to residents as soon as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A spokesperson from Rochford District Council also confirmed this was the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK councillor Stuart Prior has resigned after being elected last week 15:25, 11 May 2026Updated 15:26, 11&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[4347,5551,408,5,6],"class_list":["post-34845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-local-elections","tag-national-news","tag-reform-uk","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116562717816841097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}