Council accused of ‘gutter politics’ after opposition leader’s allowance is slashed

Derbyshire County Council’s controlling Reform UK administration has been accused of ‘gutter politics’ and being ‘spiteful’ after it forced through a vote to significantly cut the Conservative Leader’s allowance.

The Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) has been reduced by £6,280 for the forthcoming financial year.

Reform UK Council Leader, Cllr Alan Graves, introduced the motion at a meeting on March 25 as part of overall plans to freeze all councillors’ separate Basic Allowances in light of ongoing financial pressures, the cost of living crisis, the prospect of Local Government Reorganisation and after considering an Independent Remuneration Panel’s advisory report. 

But the Reform administration was accused of an ‘ambush’ after also forcing through a motion and a vote with hardly any warning to reduce Opposition Conservative Group Leader Alex Dale’s Special Responsibility Allowance by a third from £18,840 to £12,560 for the 2026-27 financial year from April 1. 

Cllr Dale told the meeting: “My firm view has always been – and I have been a councillor for over ten years now – my firm view has always [been] that MPs should not set their own salary and councillors should not set their own pay. 

“And that’s the reason why we have an Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) and I have always voted with the Independent Remuneration Panel at any level of council because that is the fairest way to do it. 

“It’s about ensuring transparency that councillors aren’t lining their own pockets and it also prevents the sort of gutter politics that we are seeing with this approach whereby you are targeting the opposition because you do not like scrutiny.” 

He added that he thinks this is ‘really spiteful’ and he questioned why the Reform administration does not put its ‘money where it’s mouth is’ and reduce the Leader, Deputy Leader, Cabinet Members, and Chairs of Committees’ allowances by a third. 

Cllr Dale also stated that he would be willing for his specific role as the main opposition leader to be subjected to a review by the IRP on whether it thinks the role should receive a reduced SRA. 

Photo: Derbyshire County Council Chamber at County Hall in Matlock (Photo credit: LDR Jon Cooper).

The IRP had recommended the SRA for the main opposition leader to remain at 45% of the Council Leader’s annual SRA for the 2026-27 financial year which would have afforded Cllr Dale the same SRA as in 2025-26 at £18,840. 

But following the Reform administration’s motion to amend this to 30% of the Council Leader’s annual SRA for 2026-27, Cllr Dale will now be left with an SRA of £12,560 – a £6,280 reduction for the forthcoming financial year. 

Councillors in key roles receive SRAs alongside their separate Basic Allowances and the council agreed to freeze both across the board for the 2026-27 financial year at the 2025-26 level with the exception of an SRA reduction for the role of the main opposition leader. 

Cllr Dale argued that his specific role should have been made subject to an assessment by the IRP before this motion was presented at short notice and was voted through by the majority-controlling Reform administration. 

Conservative Cllr Linda Grooby said it was 'completely unfair and completely unacceptable' to have been confronted with this motion at such short notice. 

Fellow Conservative Cllr Wayne Major told Reform councillors: “This is a target on one individual, one individual in this council who is the Opposition Leader of the Council who is the person with the main job of holding the administration to account and ensuring democracy is fulfilled and that voices are heard, ensuring good value for money is achieved – and you have gone full Trump, full Donald Trump.” 

He accused Reform of trying to stop the opposition from scrutinising them and of not wanting an effective opposition or someone who can challenge them. Cllr Major added: “This is an attack on this opposition which is an attack on democracy itself in terms of how a council functions.” 

He also told the Reform administration: “It’s incredibly disappointing that you have chosen to go down a route that targets one individual in the hope it will remove opposition and control us and quieten us in some way and if that is what you think, you are severely mistaken.” 

Green Party Cllr Gez Kinsella attempted to amend the motion to remove the proposed reduction to the main opposition leader’s SRA but this was outvoted and lost.   

Fellow Green Party Cllr Rachael Hatchett said she echoed the outrage over the motion which Reform UK had brought at short notice and she thinks it is disrespectful for councillors to be put in this position.   

Conservative Cllr Martyn Ford said Reform’s motion was ‘crass and purile’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘ridiculous’ to have the main opposition leader’s SRA reduced and it is a bad sign for anyone wanting to enter politics.   

Liberal Democrat Cllr Ed Fordham accused Reform of picking on one councillor who is ‘not from your own tribe’ and it does not do the council any credit to have done so and it was a ‘shame’ and it will be looked back at with regret.    

Fellow Liberal Democrat Tom Snowdon said he thinks a lot of the members would agree that councillors’ allowances should be frozen across the board but he described the timing of the motion as unacceptable. He added: “To get a piece of paper ten minutes before the meeting starts is really unacceptable. It doesn’t give us time to absorb the contents of it, to think about counter arguments, or to even discuss with colleagues what position should be taken.”   

Cllr Snowdon said: “I do not think it is acceptable to try and ambush people at these meetings by dropping in additional papers five minutes before the meeting starts."  

Conservative Cllr Susan Hobson said: “I think it’s a peevish and spiteful act to put [in] a paper five minutes before this meeting when you have obviously discussed this and wanted it. I agree – slice something off everybody’s allowance but to identify the Leader of the Opposition is spiteful, it’s mean and it’s uncalled for and I’m really disappointed in this council.”   

Conservative Cllr Carol Hart said Cllr Dale puts in ‘so much work’ spending a lot of his time reading reports and preparing challenges. She added: “I have no problem with some of the suggestions but reducing the amount for the [main] Opposition Leader is absolutely awful. I am not sure what you are afraid of.”  

Conservative Cllr Steve Bull said it was ‘ridiculous’ that just one individual has had their allowance ‘slashed’ and he also argued that the SRA reduction should go back to the IRP to be reviewed.  

Labour Cllr Anne Clarke also expressed her disappointment over the short notice and she described Reform’s motion as ‘absolutely, totally unacceptable’ and she described the matter as ‘disrespectful’.  

Independent Cllr Ruth George said she was worried about how this would all be perceived because it was important that the council be seen by the public to be acting responsibly.  

Reform Cllr Stephen Reed, Cabinet Member for Business Services, said the change was about bringing the authority into line with other councils and considering the public purse. He added that it was not about specifically targeting the main opposition leader who he thinks is a ‘fantastic member’ who has done a great job in opposition.  

The IRP previously noted that the position regarding public finances had not improved over the last year and the council was still required to find significant savings to produce a balanced budget.    

It had recommended there should be no change to councillors’ Basic Allowances for 2026-27 and that SRAs should also remain at the 2025-26 level but the Reform administration’s amendment to the recommendations will leave Cllr Dale £6,280 out of pocket for the forthcoming financial year with only a £12,560 SRA.    

The Council Leader’s SRA remains unaltered at the 2025-26 level at £41,868, now more than three times Cllr Dale’s, and the Deputy Leader Robert Reaney’s SRA remains at 75per cent of the Council Leader’s at £31,398.  

SRAs for all other key council positions will also remain unaltered at the same level at which they stood in 2025-26 as per the Reform administration’s decision to freeze allowances.   

Cllr Graves told the meeting that the IRP felt it was necessary to show restraint concerning allowances when the council’s finances are still under pressure particularly with Local Government Reorganisation on the horizon and it therefore felt it was not the time to substantially alter councillors’ allowances.  

He stressed that none of the Reform councillors came into their roles to ‘line their pockets’ and some had not even known they received any form of payment for being a councillor.   

Cllr Graves said: “The discussion that we have been having here is not the fact that we want to freeze allowances and stop extra spending on councillors, which is the most important thing about this paper, but we have been talking about poor old Cllr Alex Dale, and it’s not about him, it’s about the title of the main opposition leader.”  

He also argued that the IRP is an advisory organisation and it does not tell the council what to do and the authority can have its own opinion and deciding to freeze councillors’ Basic Allowances is the most important thing and you do not need allowances to be able to scrutinise anybody.    

The council formally voted in favour of freezing all councillors’ Basic Allowances from April 1, 2026, for the 2026-27 financial year so they will remain at the same 2025-26 financial year level without any increases.     

And it agreed that the SRAs payable to councillors in key roles from April 1, 2026, should also remain at 2025-2026 levels, except for the SRA to be paid to the Leader of the main opposition group which shall be reduced from 45per cent to 30per cent of the allowance paid to the Leader of the Council.    

It also agreed that the saving in allowance normally paid to the Leader of the Opposition should be transferred from the Member Allowances budget to the Member Community Leadership fund.