New Worcestershire County Council leader 'proud' to be elected into role
Reform UK's Joanne Monk was announced as the new leader following yesterday's (22 May) Worcestershire County Council meeting
The new leader of Worcestershire County Council says she's delighted after being elected into the role.
Reform UK's councillor Joanne Monk took up the position in yesterday's full council meeting, with Reform's David Taylor also announced as the deputy leader.
It follows the county council elections earlier this month, which saw Reform UK pick up 27 out of the 57 seats available, which meant they fell two seats short of being able to claim a majority, leaving the council in no overall control.
The Conservatives lost there overall majority control at the election, being reduced to 12 seats from their 45 previous, with former leader Simon Geraghty losing his seat.
They remained the second biggest party, with the Green and Independent Alliance councillors coming together to have 10 seats in total, the Greens having eight seats, with the Independents having two.
Speaking following the first council meeting since those elections and taking up the role as leader, councillor Joanne Monk said: “I’m very proud and we are going to make a difference being Reform.
“It was very unexpected because I didn’t come back into joining Reform to stand as a councillor to be a leader, it just became that way as I was one of the most experienced returning councillors and I just put myself forward.
“Our first priority is to look at the finances then we will take it from there, anything else after that has to be dependent on the finances and what we are going in to.”
All positions in the new cabinet were filled by Reform UK councillors, while councillor Louis Stephen from the Greens became the new chairman following a vote, with the Liberal Democrats councillor Paul Bennett named as vice-chair.