THE first Reform UK councillor in Wellington has been announced after the town’s former mayor Cllr Marcus Barr joined the party.

Cllr Barr was first elected to the town council in 2015 as a Conservative and also served on the now-defunct Somerset West and Taunton district council.

More recently, he sat as an Independent without any political affiliation after giving up the party whip.

He was also elected in 2022 to represent Wellington as a Conservative on the new Somerset Council unitary authority, where he will now form a political party grouping with Reform’s Cllr Bente Height, who represents Shepton Mallet and who defected from the Conservatives in January.

Cllr Barr, a former Wellington Conservative branch chairman, said: “Joining Reform is not a decision I have taken lightly.

“Along with lots of other people I know in the Conservative Party locally it is something that I have gradually been moving toward for a long time.

“The Conservatives nationally are losing members like me because they no longer truly represent our views.

“These days they seem to be more in line with Liberal Democrat policies than with voters who are on the Right in politics who are probably in a majority in the country as a whole.

“We saw more than 8,000 people vote for Reform in the Wellington constituency at the last General Election because they were dismayed at the way the Conservatives were going.

“Those who did so in Wellington did not have a voice locally because Reform did not have any councillors to speak up for them.

“They do now.”

However, Cllr Barr said despite his new party membership, he would continue to represent residents and do his best to fight for what was best for them regardless of which party they may have voted for.