Cllr Harrison Allman-Varty shaking hands with Reform leader Nigel Farage at the party’s South East regional conference. Stuart Mitchell

By Emily Dalton

local democracy reporter

Elmbridge Borough Council has gained its only Reform councillor after a defection from the Conservative Party.  Harrison Allman-Varty announced he was leaving the Tories at Reform’s South East conference with Nigel Farage at Sandown Park Racecourse in Esher on January 10.

First elected in 2022 at the ripe age of 18, he was the youngest councillor in the UK for a time. Cllr Allman-Varty, who represents Oatlands and Burwood Park at Elmbridge Borough Council, announced he was renouncing the Conservatives at Friday’s conference.

Cllr Harrison Allman-Varty. Elmbridge Borough Council

Cllr Allman-Varty is the only sitting Reform councillor in Surrey and, so far, none has been elected but others are believed to have “crossed the floor” to join the new party which gained a bigger share of the popular vote than the Lib Dems in the general election last July.

A recent YouGov opinion poll on voting intentions showed Reform to be on 24 per cent, only one percentage point behind Labour and three points ahead of the Conservatives while the Lib Dems were up slightly on 14 per cent.

In a speech to Reform’s regional conference, Cllr Allman-Varty said the public felt let down by the Tories and could no longer trust them. He said: “The Conservative party has drifted further from their values leaving them frustrated and disillusioned but now Reform UK is giving them something that they’ve been craving for for too long, a real alternative.”

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) after the conference, Cllr Allman-Varty said he had been thinking about making the leap for the last few months as the party has “professionalised and grown”. Asked whether he thinks other councillors or voters would follow his lead, the new Reform UK councillor simply said: “It’s worth watching.”

The news comes as the party announced it now has 180,000 members, but lost 10 councillors last week in a protest over Nigel Farage’s leadership.

Elmbridge borough borders Guildford borough to the north east.

Responding to the defection, an Elmbridge Conservative Party spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that he has decided to resign as the growing group of Conservative councillors on Elmbridge are making real progress on holding the unpopular Lib Dem council to account and standing up for local residents.”

Addressing the issue of the constituents who had elected him, Cllr Allman-Varty said he was “still the same person who put their name in”. He added: “The number one thing is making sure issues and problems brought to me by residents will be resolved, that won’t change.”

Voters in Esher and Walton ousted the Conservative Party at the last general election, bringing in the area’s first Liberal Democrat MP. The newly-elected Monica Harding, MP for Esher and Walton, said: “It seems the Conservatives, locally and nationally, now align more with Reform’s populist ideology than with the traditional Conservative values of public service and decency. It’s been disappointing to see them aping Reform’s divisive calls.

“The Conservatives locally moved away from the centre ground under Dominic Raab so it is no surprise to hear that another Conservative Elmbridge Borough Councillor has left the party – this one’s going to Reform. The others left in disgust at the Conservative party’s direction of travel.

“In the last election, Esher & Walton residents rejected the Conservatives and their divisive views. They want a return to decency in politics, real solutions for the NHS and the cost of living crisis, better public services and an end to the sewage polluting our rivers. We need unity, solutions and progress, not more division and empty promises from Reform or the Conservatives.”