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A Reform council has descended into a series of resignations, email leaks and lurid allegations – as a councillor quit the party over the leader allegedly mocking mental health as “woke.”
Former Reform councillor Kenny Hope – now sitting as an independent – alleges that Durham’s Reform council leader Andrew Husband said “mental health is woke” during an April 2026 cabinet working group meeting, while two cabinet members are said to have opened wine and one vaped.
Another former Reform councillor – again now sitting as an independent – Cllr Kate Rowland, said a Reform meeting “includ[ed] drinking wine at 3:30 in the afternoon, vaping openly, laughing, joking, showing blatant disinterest, and belittling mental health.”
“[It] showed an appalling lack of seriousness,” she claimed, in council-wide emails shared with Byline Times.
Leader Cllr Andrew Husband told this outlet: “I stated Virtue Signalling about mental health in such a way is woke”. He did not deny branding some of his colleagues “narcissists”.
On Tuesday, emails flew around to all councillors between the Reform leader and his own councillors – and former members – concerned about the handling of complaints and the leadership’s attitude to mental health issues.
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Amid a flurry of personal attacks, on Wednesday, Cllr Husband wrote to councillors: “This is a request to quit the spamming. The three amigos [former Reform councillors] have now had multiple warnings about abusing this platform. I will be reaching out to individual group leaders to put this nonsense to bed.
“I suggest training for those who don’t understand how local government works.”
He added: “Rest assured the Reform leak has been found so business as usual. These people can’t even leak properly.”
“I will be asking the council to conduct a risk assessment of this abnormal behaviour, for the benefit of members to safeguard against such levels of harassment that we are experiencing. It seems that no lessons have been learned from last month’s embarrassing behaviour.”
Responding to the claims at the heart of the dispute, Cllr Husband continued: “‘Mental health is woke?’ Random. I mean who even says that?
“What is ‘woke’ is weaponising the mental health card in a standards process to try and call out officer conduct and behaviour. With no powers or local government legislation to underpin this – a fruitless exercise that results in a complete episode of virtue signalling.
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“Virtue signalling in politics is woke. Google it. I stand by my advice which (previous) standards ignored.”
A vote of no confidence has now been called by one of the former Reform councillors, Cllr Kenny Hope. Cllr Husband told councillors: “Good luck getting two parties to support this farce.
“Regardless, I will enjoy the challenge should it reach the chamber.”
He also claimed on X Cllr Hope was a “bitter ex reform misfit who was suspended [and] now Restore wannabe nut job.”
On Thursday morning, the Chief Executive also reportedly sent an email to the all-members distribution list telling councillors their behaviour was unacceptable.
The saga follows a row over how a Reform councillor (an independent at the time), Cllr Paul Sexton, was cleared over bullying and harassment claims by a panel with a Reform majority. The one non-Reform councillor on the panel is understood to have found he breached the member’s code this January, following a drawn-out process going back to at least 2023.
There were four complaints about his alleged treatment of council officers in 2023. However, th…