{"id":49609,"date":"2025-02-25T10:27:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T10:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/cornwall-councillor-defects-to-reform-from-conservatives\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T10:27:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T10:27:24","slug":"cornwall-councillor-defects-to-reform-from-conservatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/cornwall-councillor-defects-to-reform-from-conservatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornwall councillor defects to Reform from Conservatives"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
George Thorpe<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, South West<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
Seb Noble<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC Cornwall Political Reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kevin Towill made the switch ahead of local elections on 1 May<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he is pleased to welcome a defecting Conservative councillor to his party.<\/p>\n

Kevin Towill changed his allegiance at Cornwall Council ahead of local elections on 1 May, saying it was “exciting being part of a new political force”.<\/p>\n

Mr Towill said he felt the party was “positive and built up from the grass roots by members of the public”.<\/p>\n

Conservative council leader Linda Taylor said she was saddened by Mr Towill’s departure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘The betterment of Cornwall’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Mr Towill said: “I feel that the old parties in Cornwall are propping each other up in hatred of each other and forgotten about the people that they are meant to be serving.<\/p>\n

“I am looking forward to the future working for the betterment of Cornwall.”<\/p>\n

Mr Farage, who attended a party rally at the Carn Brea Leisure Centre, said he hoped the May election would result in more Reform councillors sitting alongside the Newquay Porth and Tretherras ward member.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage visited Cornwall for a rally<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

The defection makes Mr Towill the sole representative for Reform UK in the council chamber.<\/p>\n

Mr Towill updated his profile page on the council’s website<\/a> to show him as a Reform UK member before he officially commented on his move.<\/p>\n

Mr Farage said: “I hope he is going to be joined by many more after the election.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘A real stalwart’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n

Council leader Linda Taylor confirmed Mr Towill emailed her on Monday to say he would stand as a Reform UK candidate on May 1 and had switched parties.<\/p>\n

She said it was a disappointment but that Mr Towill would remain a good friend.<\/p>\n

Ms Taylor said: “It is very sad that Kevin has made this decision as he’s been a real stalwart for us.<\/p>\n

“I will continue to treat him as a good friend and he still has a lot of friends in the party.”<\/p>\n

Leader of the Liberal Democrat group Leigh Frost said the defection was “no real change, but a rebranding of more of the same”.<\/p>\n

Leader of the Independent group Julian German said Cornwall Council elections “are not a referendum on how the government runs the country”.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people attended the event, at which former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe, now a member of Reform UK, gave a speech.<\/p>\n

A large group gathered outside the leisure centre to protest against the rally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Thorpe BBC News, South West Seb Noble BBC Cornwall Political Reporter BBC Kevin Towill made the switch ahead of local elections on 1 May Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he is pleased to welcome a defecting Conservative councillor to his party. Kevin Towill changed his allegiance at Cornwall Council ahead of local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[8346,1850,9138,13183,3141],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49611,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49609\/revisions\/49611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}