SKDC councillor Rosemary Trollope-Bellew quits Reform UK after a fortnight

A councillor who said she was ‘confident’ she was making the right decision in joining Reform UK has quit the party after a fortnight.

Rosemary Trollope-Bellew, elected as a Conservative in 2023 to represent Casewick ward, which lies between Stamford and Bourne, soon switched to being an Independent after becoming disillusioned with the Tories.

But at the end of last month (February) she announced she was joining Reform UK “after careful consideration” because it was a party she felt “better reflects my conservative values than the one I left”.

Only a few days later she cancelled her Reform UK party membership to be an Independent again.

Explaining the U-turn, she said: “I joined Reform UK in good faith a short time ago after careful consideration.

“With the falling out between the two MPs Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe being played out on social media I felt that this was not the kind of party I wished to be associated with.

“Like many people, I had high hopes of Reform UK playing a larger part in the next government but under the current leadership this has become an impossible dream.

“It is for those reasons that I decided to cancel my membership and go back to being an Independent Unaligned.”

At the 2023 district council election, Coun Vanessa Smith for the Green Party received 1,057 votes, and Coun Trollope-Bellew stood as a Conservative and received 709 votes.

Between them they represent residents of an area that includes Uffington, Barholm, Tallington, Baston and Langtoft.

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