An interview with Tameside’s Reform leader Allan Hopwood

Walking into the Reform Party ‘nerve centre’ in Tameside, party leader Allan Hopwood welcomed us into what he calls ‘the Kremlin’ – the Tameside One council building.

Stepping into the lift up to the second floor, he jokes that next year the place will be known as the ‘White House’. That will only be the case if his party wins 10 more seats at the next Local Elections – May 2027 – to take control of the council.

The leader of the opposition explained you’ve got to have a sense of humour in politics, a form of gallows humour.

This is something he developed whilst serving in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, which has now translated into his tenure in Tameside’s Reform Party.

Stepping into Reform’s base of operations, just opposite the second floor toilets, the first thing you see is a big Union Jack in the corner. A kitchenette, a long table, two sofas, a coffee table and a small computer suite made up the rest of the decor.

‘Those computers don’t get electricity’, Allan points out. He raised his eyebrows and added ‘at least we have a decent coffee machine’.

After he brewed up and posed for some photographs, we headed next door to his office to talk about what Reform wants for Tameside.

The door with the plaque saying ‘leader of the opposition’ swung open and in we went. The computer is actually working in this office. His Reform colleagues in the ‘nerve centre’ had to make do with their laptops.

Councillor Hopwood sat down with the Local Democracy Reporting Service, gripping a Reform-branded mug with a Union Jack background, to talk about what his party has in store for Tameside.

Allan’s previous quips about turning Tameside One from the Kremlin to the White House made reference to his confidence that Reform would be leading the council next year. A switch from the left of politics (Labour) to the right (Reform) after decades of Labour dominance.

When Allan became the first elected Reform councillor in Greater Manchester at the Longdendale by-election in April 2025, he said he was the first of many. That turned out to be true, as Reform took 18 out of 19 available council seats in May’s local elections.

Labour currently run the council as a minority administration, pieced together by an alliance with independent councillors.

Coun Hopwood told the LDRS: “A lack of confidence doesn’t get you anywhere and you’ve got to be in it to win it. We’re on a good trajectory at the moment and we’re working extremely hard for the community.

“We’re scrutinising the council where we can, but we won’t over scrutinise just for the sake of it.

“We are looking for any problems in the disconnect between Tameside council and the local communities. Ultimately, the local community is who we are working for.

“We’re not in it for our own gain. The difference now is that everyone in our team has come on board because they felt the need to make change – that is what we’re here to do.”

The recent Gorton and Denton, Makerfield and the Greater Manchester mayoral by-elections didn’t go Reform’s way. But Allan feels those by-elections were anomalies and not much can be gleaned from them. He agreed the ‘Burnham bounce’ has helped Labour, but he doesn’t think it will last.

With just over 18 months experience in post, the Longdendale ward representative is Reform’s veteran councillor. Being a critic of the council leadership from the outside is one job, but actually running a council is a different matter entirely.

By comparison to the incumbent Labour party, Reform are politically inexperienced. But their leader believes this is a strength not a weakness.

Allan explained that they have picked councillors with ‘real world experience’ and have placed them in roles that best suit their expertise. For example, Coun Mark Beese has experience in the SEND and children’s sector – so he sits on children’s services scrutiny panel for Reform.

Pragmatism marks one of the key things Reform stands for in Tameside, according to Allan. He feels a party full of people who aren’t used to the political status-quo can deliver actual change.

“If you have someone in charge of a department with no knowledge of that department, they aren’t as effective,” Allan continued. “I’d go far as to say they shouldn’t even be there.

“One of the biggest problems in politics is nepotism – so a job for the boys with a nudge and a wink. Then you’re not utilising the best people and abilities.

“I couldn’t be more proud with what we’ve achieved so far. In my lifetime, it’s one of the highlights of my life to make significant change.”

He went on to say that if they were to take over the council, they would learn lessons from other successful councils. He used an example of Derbyshire County Council (run by Reform), who declared a £2m underspend earlier this year.

The Reform leader said: “We want pragmatism back in government locally and nationally. We want to deal in facts and deal in pragmatism to make sure outcomes are in the best interest of the community.

“Unfortunately, if you start doing things to an ideology – democracy falls by the wayside. I find that deeply disturbing.

“We are living in an environment now where people are guided by various media forms, to believe things that aren’t necessarily true and I find that disturbing. We’re here to fight against that and let people know what the cold facts are.”

With Reform taking a hit in national polls, Allan doesn’t fear they have lost popularity locally as a result.

In regard to the latest criticisms over the £72m in funding for Reform, Allan said: “There is no scandal, it’s a witchhunt. There is a difference. It’s most definitely a play by the establishment to do everything they can to thwart Nigel Farage’s progress. They’ve never bothered about putting caps on donations, they’ve never looked at it before because it’s always worked for them.

“It just seems ironic to me that they’re crying now because of these donations of £72m. It’s still dwarfed in comparison to the last couple of years to what Labour and the Tories have had.

“The more this kind of thing happens, the people out there can see what is happening. Coming after one man constantly, one thing after another. It’s one rule for one and one rule for another.”

When asked if he felt uncomfortable with the idea of Reform being funded largely by two crypto billionaires, Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, Allan simply said no. He pointed out Reform also gets income from party membership fees, events they have run and other smaller donors.

When asked what Reform stands for, Allan said it’s about reducing taxes, being financially responsible and protecting the borders. Locally, the major agenda for Reform in Tameside is protecting green belt land.

Allan queried: “Where is the virtue in giving up our green belt land? Why are we sitting here discussing why it’s acceptable to give up our green belt and farm land?

“This connects to the attack on farming in our country. It’s a form of self-destruction. Without farming how are we going to feed our country?

“To be talking about climate change being man made and then destroying green belt areas and building on them – the two things don’t work out. This is why I talk about pragmatism in politics.

“You have to look at why we need so many houses, no one talks about that. The target is set by the government who say we need X amount of houses. Society at the moment has created a greater need for housing.

“In terms of the homelessness problem, a lot of them are not homeless because they don’t have a home to live in, it’s because they can’t afford to live in a home in the first place. It’s the cost of living that is the problem.

“When you talk about people coming in through illegal immigration, why should we be providing homes for those people anyway? We shouldn’t, we need to draw the line under that now.

“We’ve not got enough social housing. Whenever these developers come forward they put in the minimum number of social homes in these developments.

“These are not being built for those who need housing. So many homes are being bought up as investments – that is completely wrong.”

When asked how he would tackle the housing issue. Allan felt building on brownfield land – former industrial land in urban areas – was the best way forward.

“There is a lot more brownfield land available. The reason they don’t want to build on brownfield land is because it’s more expensive and there isn’t as high a yield for developers

“It does cause more logistical problems in terms of contamination of the ground. I understand it’s more difficult, but just because something is more difficult doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.”

Currently there is a brownfield development being brought forward around Stalybridge train station. The Labour council sold off their own land to help push through the 102-home development around Water Street.

When asked if a potential Reform-run Tameside council would front cash to push through brownfield schemes, he added: “It’s not the council’s place to do it, it’s the developer’s place to do that. Then they get permission to use that land.

“If we didn’t roll over so easily and we wouldn’t have to carve up our green belt land.”

He also said he would assess who is living in each social home. An example he gave is that those in houses too big for them could be replaced by more suitable families.

Although he has a clear directive in mind, if a Reform-run Tameside council does come to fruition next May, as Allan believes it will, it may not necessarily be him running the show. He says a vote at Reform’s AGM will decide that as well as executive cabinet positions to make sure they have ‘the right team in place’.

“It’s not about any one person’s political ambition here,” Allan concluded. “If that does become part of the mix, in my opinion, we’re doing it wrong because the goal has been forgotten about."