Conservative Chaos in Worcestershire: Badenoch Cracks Down as Broad Alliance Ousts Reform

​In a move that highlights the growing fractures within the Conservative Party, CCHQ has suspended its local leader in Worcestershire after he joined a "rainbow coalition" designed to restore stability to a county mired in Reform UK-led dysfunction.

​The dramatic intervention by Conservative Chairman Kevin Hollinrake, acting under the direction of Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, came just hours after Cllr Adam Kent helped orchestrate a cross-party alliance to remove Reform UK from power.

​A United Front Against Reform Instability

​Worcestershire County Council has been governed by a minority Reform administration since last May, a period defined by what critics describe as "appalling instability." The chaos reached a breaking point last month when Reform ousted its own leader, Jo Monk, replacing her with former Conservative MP Alan Amos.

​Faced with the prospect of another year of Reform-led drama, an unprecedented alliance of Liberal Democrats, Greens, Conservatives, and Independents formed to provide the county with adult leadership. This "Unity" coalition successfully backed Green councillor Matt Jenkins as the new Council Leader.

​The Lib Dem Vision: Integrity Over Ideology

​Liberal Democrat group leader Dan Boatright-Greene was instrumental in the transition, nominating Cllr Jenkins despite their ideological differences. Highlighting the need for a functional local government, Cllr Boatright-Greene noted:

​"Local government is not Westminster, and the people of Worcestershire did not elect councillors to spend years shouting slogans at each other while the county drifts further into chaos."

​The Liberal Democrats have maintained that while parties may not agree on every policy, the priority must be integrity and delivery over the "sloganeering" that characterised the previous Reform administration.

​CCHQ Chooses Partisanship Over Pragmatism

​Despite the coalition’s success in removing Reform UK, Conservative HQ responded with immediate disciplinary action. Cllr Kent was suspended pending investigation, with a Conservative spokesperson claiming the arrangement was "totally opposed" by party leadership.

​This crackdown reveals a Conservative Party more concerned with internal purity and Westminster optics than the effective running of local services. While the local Conservative group recognised that cooperation was the only way to end the Reform-led "chaos," Badenoch’s leadership appears intent on blocking any cooperation with Green or Liberal Democrat voices, even if it means leaving a vacuum for Reform to fill.

​The New Council Makeup

​The power-sharing deal successfully shifts the balance of the 57-seat council, effectively sidelining the 23 Reform UK councillors. The current political make up of the 57 councillors on Worcestershire CC is now as follows: 23 Reform UK, 12 Conservative, 8 Green, 7 Liberal Democrats, 5 independent, and 2 Labour.

​As it stands, the new administration led by Cllr Jenkins and (the now suspended) Cllr Kent represents a pragmatic shift toward consensus politics. However, with CCHQ ordering its councillors to withdraw from the arrangement, the residents of Worcestershire remain caught between a local desire for stability and a Conservative Party leadership that seems allergic to cross-party cooperation.

​A Leadership in Contradiction

​The suspension of Cllr Kent has raised eyebrows across the political spectrum, coming just a week after Kemi Badenoch proposed that the Conservatives would be happy to form coalitions in local government with Reform UK.

​During the local election campaign, Badenoch signaled that she would "trust local leaders" to form joint administrations if it helped deliver "Conservative principles." Yet, when those same local leaders determined that Reform’s "chaos" was the primary obstacle to those principles, and instead looked toward the Liberal Democrats and Greens for stability, the leadership’s tolerance for local autonomy vanished.  

​This double standard suggests that for the current Conservative leadership, a "deal" is only acceptable if it shifts the council further to the right, regardless of whether it serves the actual interests of the residents. By punishing Cllr Kent for a pragmatism she herself advocated for just days ago, Badenoch has left her party’s local strategy in as much disarray as the administration they just helped replace.