Anti-Reform protest 'an attack on democracy', new Lancashire leader claims
The Reform UK politician poised to be installed as the new leader of Lancashire County Council says a planned union protest ahead of the meeting at which he will officially take up the role is “a direct attack on the democratic will of the people”.
Stephen Atkinson was responding to the announcement of a demonstration by the Lancashire Association of Trades Union Councils (LATUC).
The group says it will gather outside County Hall on Thursday lunchtime, just as councillors meet for the first time since Reform won control of the authority at the local elections earlier this month.
LATUC says it wants to “spell out…that we will not take any attack against minorities, trade unions or our communities lying down”.
It adds that it is concerned the party will seek to mimic within local government in Lancashire the kind of cuts controversially imposed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as part of Donald Trump’s administration in the United States.
A spokesperson for LATUC said of Reform: “They have nothing to say about inequality, poverty or solutions to declining public services other than to blame migrants. Thus they offer nothing to working people but despair and division.”
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), LATUC president Pete Thorne said the party was masquerading as something it is not.
“[Reform] claim to represent the workers, but they don’t – they [have] voted against workers’ rights [legislation] at every stage in parliament since it has been put forward by Labour.
“We don’t know how they’re going to get on in the county, but they’ve come in with all sorts of daft ideas, like wanting to scrap working from home – which will be an interesting one, because the county council has sold off a lot of its offices,” he added.
However, County Cllr Atkinson said the demonstrators should remember that Lancashire residents “elected a clear Reform majority” at County Hall just three weeks ago.
He told the LDRS: “These protestors must accept that residents rejected their agenda to maintain the status quo.
“We are determined to bring about the serious change that local people voted for, ensuring that Lancashire County Council delivers value for money and effective local services.”
At a press conference last week when he was elected the leader of the Reform group by his fellow members, County Cllr Atkinson stressed that his focus was on ensuring the authority could achieve the £100m of savings needed to balance the books over the next two years.
Asked whether any county council staff needed to be fearful for their jobs – in the wake of comments by party leader Nigel Farage suggesting those working on diversity programmes or climate change initiatives at any of the local authorities Reform now controls should be “seeking alternative careers” – he said: “Staff know what our policies are – we will follow process, we will be respectful [and] we will be dignified, but we have an electoral mandate to deliver what we said we would do.”