Former council leader Amanda Hopgood, Liberal Democrat, warned that County Durham would be “the guinea pig for the experiment of the Reform Party”.
Hopgood, who led the council as part of a coalition between 2021 and 2025, criticised the party for making several promises it is unable to deliver while in control of a local authority.
“It is a tragedy that County Durham will be the guinea pig for the experiment of the Reform Party leading one of the biggest councils in the country,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“Their statements so far seem not to recognise their strong local inheritance from the administration I led for the past four years.”
Labour councillor Rob Crute suggested the party will “hit a brick wall” when attempting to set a zero per cent council tax increase next year and repair potholes within 24 hours of being reported.
“I think they might find it quite uncomfortable,” he said.
Reform’s 65 new councillors also voted through new rules giving the party and its members greater autonomy over committee and scrutiny meetings, in a move political rivals likened to marking its homework.
