It’s Over: Hartlepool Conservatives Facing Collapse After Councillor Defects to Reform UK...

Mike Young Leader of the Local Conservative Group faces a political exodus of councillors in the coming months..

Defection by a now Former Conservative Councillor to Reform UK could signal the beginning of the end for the Hartlepool Conservatives.

9th May 2025

After only losing political control of Hartlepool Borough Council a year ago, it seems the Hartlepool Conservatives could be about to face imminent extinction from the political scene as one of their Councillors this week announces he's stepping over to join Reform UK...

The Hartlepool Conservatives will now have just five councillors left in the council chamber of Hartlepool Borough Council

In what insiders are calling the beginning of the end, long-standing Hartlepool councillor Rob Darby has officially defected to Reform UK — a move that sent shockwaves through an already fractured local Tory group. The defection comes hot on the heels of a bruising by-election loss for Labour in one of its so-called “safest” seats, which was snatched by Reform UK & former political candidate Amanda Napper barely a week ago.

Now, with two Reform UK councillors sitting in Hartlepool Borough Council chambers, a new political reality is said to be setting in — one where the tired establishment parties are being slowly swept aside by rising public anger over issues long ignored: uncontrolled immigration, the spiralling housing chaos, and a broken local government system more interested in bureaucracy & lining its own pockets rather than maintaining essential council services. .

Cllr Darby's move to Reform comes just days after another Tory Councillor announced he was moving away from Hartlepool & is not said to be seeking re-election in 2026

Cllr Darby, who represents the politically volatile Hart ward — a key swing seat in council elections — is understood to have become increasingly disillusioned with the Conservative leadership both locally and nationally. Sources close to the councillor say he's “had enough” of the empty platitudes and was swayed by the momentum Reform UK is gathering on the ground.

This latest blow leaves the Hartlepool Conservatives said to be looking like a ghost ship — hollowed out, rudderless, and now staring down the barrel of political extinction.

The Labour in Hartlepool are being branded as "Part of the Problem & not the solution"

Labours policies are being branded as a continuation of the Conservatives, with Labour & the Conservatives looking almost indistinguishable from each other in terms of policies..

But the fallout doesn’t end there. Labour, too, is beginning to flounder, especially after former Labour Councillor Tom Feeney announced his departure from the party to become an independent just a day after the Reform UK election result in Hartlepool. Labour, it seems therefore, Far from riding high off the Tory collapse, Labour’s local support, especially in places such as Hartlepool has taken a nosedive along with the Conservatives, with Constituents said to be turning their backs on the Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash, who many are now said to view as part of the problem, & not the solution. His attempts to rebrand Tory-approved projects as Labour achievements haven't gone unnoticed — and certainly not unchallenged, with the truth being that neither Labour nor the Conservatives can now claim the confidence of Hartlepool’s residents anymore. As economic decline tightens its grip on the town and public services continue to crumble, people are said to be desperate for change — and they’re now looking outside the red-blue Westminster bubble to find it.

It seems as the political ships begin to sink, some Hartlepool Councillors are already jumping for their political survival

Cllr Darby’s defection therefore might just be the beginning of a broader political shake-up in Hartlepool, with sources claiming its signalling a deeper shift beneath the surface — one where disillusioned councillors are now jumping ship before it sinks. As both HMS Labour and HMS Tory begin to take on water, & councillors seemingly left scrambling for the political lifeboat. That coming in either the form of standing as Independent, or moving to Reform UK !