Reform UK has appointed Alan Graves, the former Mayor of Derby, as its Derbyshire County Council leader.
After winning control of Derbyshire County Council in this month’s local elections with 42 seats out of 64, Reform has now voted for who will lead its group on the authority.
Cllr Alan Graves, who now represents the Aston division on the county council, has been chosen as the party’s – and officially from next Wednesday – the authority’s leader.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I am overwhelmed. It is a great opportunity and I think there are going to be some really big changes in Derbyshire.”
Cllr Graves said cabinet roles would be filled over the next week and announced at full council on Wednesday, May 21, focusing on the key priorities of finance, potholes, special educational needs and disabilities, the council’s sprawling property portfolio and cutting back net-zero expenditure.
“Council efficiency” is number one, he says, saying: “We need to make sure the council is operating properly and efficiently to see where we can save some of the vast amounts of money that is being spent.”
He said: “As you know, we are not for net-zero, so we are going to be making sure that anything that costs the taxpayer more money we are going to change those policies.”
Cllr Graves said policies on net-zero would be “streamlined” to focus purely on those which did not cost extra.
He said ideas to tackle potholes and SEND would now begin to be formulated, saying: “I’ve literally just been elected and we have not had any discussions with anybody yet so give us a chance to have a chat about it and I am sure we might actually come up with something.”
Cllr Graves was appointed Mayor of Derby in 2023 and Cllr Graves already leads the Reform group on Derby City Council, representing Alvaston, with the city a regional hotspot for Reform success long before this year’s local elections.
Last year, he ran for the post of East Midlands Mayor on the sole pledge that he would abolish the post if elected.
He will now have one of the four voting seats at the combined authority, working with Labour Mayor Claire Ward, alongside the leaders of Derby, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (which will also now have a Reform leader).
Cllr Graves was first elected as a Labour councillor in 1995 and has since served as a member of UKIP, the Brexit Party and now Reform, and has been a member of Derby City Council in his current term since 2014 (having also served from 1995 to 2000).
Cllr Graves contested the Derby South seat in last year’s General Election, finishing in second place behind Labour’s Baggy Shanker – who is also a Derby city councillor.
Meanwhile, Cllr Robert Reaney, who represents the Sutton division, has been appointed as the group’s deputy leader, and will also formally take on the authority’s deputy leadership role from next week.
He is chairman of Bolsover Reform but was elected for a North East Derbyshire division.
Cllr Reaney contested the Bolsover seat in the 2024 General Election, finishing in third place behind then incumbent Conservative Mark Fletcher and successful current postholder, Labour’s Natalie Fleet.
