Reform UK at risk of being home for Tory rejects
PLUS: Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust finds itself poorly placed in the new NHS league table
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If you were a party facing criticisms over the volume of Tory defections, your next move might not be to welcome one of the more maligned former MPs in Nadine Dorries.
It wasn’t hard to imagine even Reform UK supporters wondering why the party was throwing its arms around someone who once insisted through gritted teeth that Boris Johnson always tells the truth.
Turns out imagination wasn’t far away, after Cllr Jim O’Neill, for Reform UK at Blackpool Council, said he was considering his allegiances after the welcome afforded to ‘failed’ Tories like Nadine Dorries and Sir Jake Berry.
The post was swiftly deleted but he’s since spoken to us to clarify exactly what he meant.
Also in today’s edition, as police investigate potential corporate failings at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, we look at into the reaction to the latest NHS league table which is predictably grim reading for health bosses.
Reform UK councillor slams party for allowing in ‘Tory rejects’
By Luke Beardsworth
A Reform councillor in Blackpool has slammed his own party for ‘importing more Tories’ and suggested the party may be turning into something he did not sign up for.
Cllr Jim O’Neill won a by-election in Marton in October 2024 and became the first Reform councillor on Blackpool Council as a result.
O’Neill was previously selected as a candidate for the Conservative Party at the 2023 local elections, but then decided to stand as an Independent instead in Waterloo ward.
But the repeated defection of Conservatives to the party, which now includes Nadine Dorries, David Jones, Sir Jake Berry and Andrea Jenkyns, has left him questioning his position.
In a now deleted post, he said: “Nobody really wanted Labour, they just didn’t want the Tories.
“So what do Reform UK keep doing…they’re importing more Tories, not content with taking their wets, they’re now showing off Boris’s cheerleader-in-chief Nadine Dorries! She remains unapologetic in her support for him despite the fact he is in no small part responsible for the uncontrolled migration.
“I am starting to think this party may be morphing into something I didn’t sign up for…it’s starting to feel like the Tories 2.0…but only accepting their rejects.
“I’m not sure if I want to be part of the propelling grassroots movement for others to jump on it as if it’s some sort of gravy train. I am taking time to reflect on this and my membership of Reform UK.”
O’Neill, who advocates for fracking on the Fylde Coast, told The Blackpool Lead that he deleted the post because he felt it was ill-timed during the national Reform UK conference.
He added: “I believe it's only proper that party members or councillors hold their party to account. Unlike many you see in the established two-party system I won't hesitate to speak up publicly when I believe they're making a mistake.”
He said his concerns were aimed at the failed Tories of a previous era, rather than local defectors such as the now-Lancashire County Council leader Stephen Atkinson or the former Tories in his cabinet.
One person quick to highlight O’Neill’s concerns was Cllr Paul Galley, the Conservative leader of the opposition at Blackpool Council.
Galley told The Blackpool Lead: “Cllr Jim O’Neill’s outburst shows yet again that Reform is a party of chaos, infighting and empty slogans. Blackpool doesn’t need more chaos, threats and tantrums — it needs competence, stability and a serious plan for the future.”
O’Neill said: “It's rather interesting that the likes of the Tory group leader at Blackpool Council appears to find my opinion so interesting. I am in no way seeking personal advancement, or seeking to cling on to power within an empty husk of a political party well past its sell by date.
“Instead I would suggest that both the Tory and Labour leadership should show a lot more interest in the opinions of the residents of Blackpool. If they did, they may not now be facing an electoral wipeout come the next local elections.”
He added: “It was Dorries [aimed at] who followed Jake Berry. There is absolutely nothing in their history to suggest any ideological leanings towards Reform.”
Recommended reading this week
🏥 Police are investigating potential corporate failings contributing to the death, ill-treatment or neglect of patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital's stroke unit, the BBC has learned.
💷 Corporate events are set to generate more than £30m for Blackpool's economy by 2028, according to new research, as the Winter Gardens upgrade continues to thrive. InsiderMedia reports here.
🚔 An organised crime group have been jailed after importing drugs from the USA to be supplied in Blackpool. Zack Higginson and Andrew Taylor filmed themselves bagging up the drugs from the USA and orchestrated the transport and delivery of them in parcels to other members of the Organised Crime Group (OCG). Central Radio (and everyone) report on the police release here.
Hospital trusts in Lancashire under pressure after NHS publishes performance ‘league table’
By Michael Holmes
The NHS trusts running the hospitals in Blackpool and Preston have been named as two of the worst in England.
League tables of the best and worst-performing trusts in the country have been published for the first time by the Department of Health and Social Care.
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