Reform UK has been hit by fresh turmoil after three more Durham County Council councillors resigned from the party, taking the total number of departures on the authority to 16 since last May's elections. The exits come in the same week that Reform's Welsh leader, Dan Thomas, stood down following his arrest on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour, adding to a run of setbacks for Nigel Farage's party as it also faces scrutiny over its finances.

Lyndsey Fox, Nicole Brown and Paul Sexton will now sit as independents on Durham County Council, where Reform won 65 seats and a majority in May last year. Fox said she quit over "growing concerns about the culture" in the party, including an unresolved safeguarding issue she had raised in July, while Durham Reform leader Andrew Husband accused the departing councillors of having "conned" and "betrayed" voters. Separately, Thomas was released on bail after being arrested in Aberbargoed on 13 September, and Farage remains under scrutiny over a Metropolitan Police probe into alleged disguised foreign donations and a parliamentary standards inquiry into a £5 million gift from Christopher Harborne.