TWO former Conservative council leaders are standing for Reform UK in next month’s local elections.
John Halsall, 75, who lives in Remenham, has been nominated as the Reform candidate for the Henley division of Oxfordshire County Council.
Mr Halsall previously served as the Conservative leader of Wokingham Borough Council from 2019 to 2022.
He represented the Remenham, Wargrave and Ruscombe ward — now the Thames ward — but stood down in May last year to stand in the General Election as the Reform candidate for Beaconsfield.
The announcement of Mr Halsall’s candidacy comes as two incumbent councillors, Felix Bloomfield and Kevin Bulmer have defected to the party.
Cllr Bloomfield previously chaired the county council from 2023 to 2024 will stand for the Wallingford division.
Cllr Bulmer currently represents Goring and will challenge the Drayton, Sutton Courtenay and Steventon division.
Mr Halsall has criticised his former party, arguing that it no longer aligned with its traditional values.
He said: “I am a conservative. I believe in small government, enterprise, ambition, the individual, compassion, low taxation, competence, the rule of law, freedom, personal responsibility, free market economics, fiscal probity, sovereignty, strong defence and borders, national pride and the Union.
“For 35 years, these policies have not been shared by the Conservative Party, which is now indistinguishable from the Lib Dems, which in turn is indistinguishable from Labour.
“As most of Henley’s concerns are created at Westminster, they cannot be resolved by local independents.”
Mr Halsall has lived in Remenham for more than 40 years and is married with three children. He served as chair of Remenham Parish Council for about 25 years.
If elected, Mr Halsall said the policy areas he would like to focus on included SEND provision, palliative care, introducing a weight limit for heavy goods vehicles coming into Henley, sewage in the River Thames and the condition of roads, potholes and pedestrian crossings.
He said: “Oxfordshire County Council is mainly concerned with adult and children’s services, education, highways, public health, waste, fire and rescue and libraries.
“Most of the services are statutory but there is a vast minority which are discretionary. All of them can be better delivered for less and there is much which should not be done at all.”
He added that he would like to safeguard Henley’s interests in the latest devolution proposals for local government and was concerned about overdevelopment. Mr Halsall said: “While population growth mainly through immigration continues at an unsustainable level, there will be huge pressure for development; the green wedge between Henley and Shiplake is almost extinguished.”
He added: “The Tories have broken Britain. Lib Dems and Labour will bankrupt Britain. A vote for any of them is a vote for more incompetence, dishonesty, and defeat.
“There is an alternative. Henley has a rational, fresh and untainted choice in Reform UK.”
With their defection, Cllr Bloomfield and Cllr Bulmer are the first-ever Reform councillors on the council, with Cllr Bloomfield leading the group and Cllr Bulmer serving as his deputy.
Cllr Bulmer was elected as a Conservative councillor in 2013 but left the party in May last year, after he was criticised for re-tweeting a post from the Britain First party. Following this, he stood as an independent and said he decided to join Reform in February.
Cllr Bulmer said: “I’ve joined Reform because I think they are closer to what the Conservative Party used to be many years ago.
“This is their first election where they are starting to field many more candidates in local elections.”
“Locally, I have been surprised by how many people I know have joined Reform or actually are supporters of Reform.
“As far of the rest of Oxfordshire, I do not know enough about the other places, but I have reason to suspect that this is the same across the county.”
Reform UK say they plan to have candidates in every seat up for election this year across the county.
The party currently has a total of 113 council seats across the country, with 98 of them being from defections, the majority of which were from the Conservative party.
Cllr Bloomfield has not responded to requests for comment.
But in a video to his supporters published on social media, he said: “I am really looking forward to getting as many [Reform] candidates over the line as we can.
“Oxford and Oxfordshire need a massive shake-up and the Lib Dem and Green coalition of chaos needs to be sorted out.”
Nominations for candidates in the local elections will close tomorrow (Saturday). The election will take place on Thursday, May 1.
