News, Politics

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch declines to rule out local coalition with Reform

By Latifa Yedroudj, Junior Local Democracy Reporter

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Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has declined to rule out any potential local coalition with Reform following the May 1 local elections in Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire County Council is holding an election Next Thursday, May 1, when county residents will have the chance to decide who they want representing them across divisions returning a total of 66 county councillors.

Mrs Badenoch paid a visited Excel Technology Group in Mansfield on Thursday (April 24) ahead of the vote.

The Conservative leader has previously ruled out any future national coalition between the Tories and Reform UK – the party seen as responsible for chipping away their support among right-leaning voters.  Nationwide opinion polls currently place Reform ahead of the Conservatives in popularity.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Ms Badenoch declined to rule out the possibility of the party forming any coalition with Reform in order to retain power at the council.

Instead she said local Conservative leaders need to do “what is right for their area” – not just what they think is needed to run a council.

She has previously ruled out any such power sharing deal for the national party.

Mrs Badenoch told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Party councillors need to do what is right for their area.

“Reform have fielded candidates all across the country.

“Most of them are paper candidates, they don’t necessarily come from the area.

“We take candidate selection very seriously.

“We make sure that they are people who are very skilled at what they’re going to be doing, because that is how we deliver better services for lower taxes.

“I’ve been talking to Sam [Smith], the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, about how hard they work to keep taxes down without cutting any services.

“Reform has no experience of running any single council, and this is why I’m reminding people that this is not an opinion poll.

“This is about who’s going to be running Adult Social Care, fixing your roads and so on and so forth.

“But as you would have seen historically, Conservatives have gone into coalition with Labour, for example.

“They’ve gone into coalition with Liberal Democrats because you don’t get to re-run a local government election.

“But Conservative councils will do what is right for their area, not just what they need to do in order to run a council.

“They will only support or be supported by people who want to help deliver a Conservative agenda.”

Mrs Badenoch said she is focused on delivering results to residents – but if the Conservatives don’t win, they will look into “alternative options”.

She also rejected a hardline stance against coalitions on a local level – indicating that they have happened in previous years.

The Tory leader said during today’s visit: “We are running to win the council.

“Talking about going into coalitions shows that it’s not really about the people, it’s just about who can win.

“This is not just about winning for us, it’s about the people who live here. It’s really important that they get the very best.

“Whenever you hear people talking about coalitions before an election, what they’re really talking about is stitch-ups.

“We’re not interested in stitch-ups – we’re interested in winning and running the council.

“If that doesn’t happen then we’ll look at alternative offers. We’ve gone in to coalitions with other parties before – with Independents, with Liberal Democrats, with Labour.

“We cannot be in a situation where bins aren’t being collected and services aren’t being delivered because no party has overall control.

“That is what happens at local government.

“What I’ve told our councillors is they need to look at who is going to deliver a Conservative agenda if they have not got one outright.

“And I trust them to make the best decisions for their local areas.

“But telling people to not go into a coalition if that’s the only option available to deliver services – that will not be right.

“We should stop playing politics with people’s lives, stop talking about stitch-ups and talk about how we’re going to make their lives better.”

Last December, the Labour Government announced an initiative to restructure local councils to promote a more efficient delivery of public services.

All nine Nottinghamshire councils have now developed three potential options, which have since been submitted to the Government for review.

That includes removing the current two-tier structure of local authorities in Nottinghamshire – which sees services split between lower and upper-tier councils.

Mrs Badenoch said local Government reorganisation is not a solution to improving services – but rather a “process”.

The key to a well-run council is having capable councillors in charge of delivering services, she said.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Local government reorganisation is not necessarily a solution – it’s just a process.

“It is always about the people. You can reorganise, but if you have bad people running a council, it will not make a difference.

“And that’s why it’s really important to look at who is standing.

“You only need to look at Birmingham, where rubbish is piling up in the streets and rats are running around – that’s what you get when you don’t pay attention to who’s going to be running local services.

“So the reorganisation is a side issue to the people and the quality of candidates that you have standing.”

A full list of all candidates standing in the May 2025 county council elections – including the names of people representing other political parties – can be found online.