
Cllr Thomas Hoof
12.5K posts

Cllr Thomas Hoof
@OnlyHoof
Donnington & Muxton, Lilleshall Parish Councillor - Published by T Hoof at Wellington, PO BOX 297, TF1 9AL











Yesterday I woke up feeling very proud to be one of Reform's 677 new councilors. This morning I woke up to an email from @reformparty_uk Head Office advising me that I have been suspended from the party "pending an investigation." Why? Because I urged people here on X to lend Reform their support for the short term - for Thursday's elections - even if they felt they couldn't for the long term. According to Head Office, "This has brought the party into disrepute and damaged the interests of the party." Let's be clear here, it is not me who has brought the party into disrepute. The party leadership did that when they unceremoniously ditched @benhabib6, and again when they suspended @RupertLowe10, our hardest working and most popular MP, back in March. His suspension provoked a wave of resignations; whole branches resigned as one in protest. I was tempted myself, but hoped things might yet improve. The atrocious press conference held a few weeks later, in which former Tory Council Chairs and Lib Dem Councilors were paraded on stage as Reform's newest recruits, was a step too far. These were people who had already been tried and tested as a councilor, and had failed to bring meaningful change to their region. Many Reform supporters feared that the newcomers were only defecting to save their seats, not for any love of the party or desire for the real change that Britain so desperately needs. I called my branch chair to resign my membership; he asked me to stay on as we were struggling to find candidates. Out of loyalty to the party at the local level - all good, hard working people who merely want to live in a country that works for them - I agreed and remained on the ballot. This campaign has been a difficult one. For every resident in my ward who supported Reform, I found another who wanted an alternative to the failed Tories and vindictive Labour, but couldn't bring themselves to vote for a party who would behave so shamefully toward their own. One of my fellow Reform candidates missed out on winning his seat by a mere 15 votes, another by a painful 5 votes. Those are seats on Shropshire council we should have won, and likely would have won had the party not decided to attack its own. In posting the messages for which I have now been suspended I was merely trying to control damage that had already been done - not by me, but by head office. I was attempting to shore up our vote in the face of widespread dismay and disillusionment. And for that I have been treated in the same way as Ben, Rupert and so many others across the country: suspension, pending disciplinary action. To head office: you wanted a response to your email so that my views "can be taken into consideration by the Emergency Disciplinary Panel." Let this post serve as that response.




Today's Poll: Which of these four methods to fund the BBC (TV, news, radio, online) would you most favour. Which is CLOSEST to your view?






I covered the UK grooming gangs scandal starting around 2014. I wrote ‘No Go Zones’ in 2016. I organised & hosted the Free Tommy rally in 2018. But remember whose org was EXTREMELY VOCAL about it as far back as 2014? Yep, @Nigel_Farage’s UKIP. Odd that people have forgotten.


