Staffordshire County Council has recommended that one of its members lose the Reform UK Party whip after two formal complaints were upheld against him.
The councillor in question, Barry Martin, was accused of making a bizarre string of semi-coherent social media posts that reflected poorly on the local council. He also refused to use proper communication channels, instead relying on Facebook.
On 12 January, Stretton Parish Council posted details to its Facebook page:
Following a thorough investigation by the Monitoring Officer and an Independent Person, the first complaint lodged earlier this year was upheld. The findings confirmed that aspects of Councillor Martin’s behaviour breached the Members’ Code of Conduct. These included inappropriate public comments on social media, repeatedly ignoring requests to speak or email the council directly and instead posting unclear and confusing messages on social media; and actions that risked bringing both the Parish Council and the County Council into disrepute. Staffordshire County Councillor Martin was asked to apologise and to undertake Code of Conduct training.
‘Do I really wanna do this ?’
It’s not hard to see why the complaints held that Martin was bringing the council into disrepute, either. Back in May 2025 (shortly after he was elected) the newly-minted councillor posted confused messages about how he disliked his new role.
Note that, whilst we’ve copied the text for screen-reader users – the original was screen-grabbed before its apparent deletion — the spelling and punctuation are preserved verbatim:
Whatthefuture?
Do i really wanna do this ? Won Stretton beating the local labour mayoress, doubling her no . of votes n the con.guy whod been in the job 4ever .
Was part of britain’s first ever Ruk county
council, Staffordshire.
Massive majority over rest of parties .Labour all but annihilated n tories abs.crushed .
Now though ,endless boring mtgs. with
antagonistic,contrary,jealous ppl, which will get us nowhere.
Hmm.considering my future.How best to use my skills,life ….
Still right behind main man Nigel and the Reform Party.
We want to take Wales,Scotland,the borough
councils next before the biggie and rule GB ,with mr F as the p m.
A jumbled rant, barely readable, about not really wanting to do the work, and complaining of the endless boring meetings that make up a councillor’s job. Along the same lines, he also posted:
REFORMOLUTION !
Reform uk now run Staffordshire after full council mtg today !
Wess the country.Massive unbeatable Ruk majority ! Rest nowhere!
N ,Staffs was the Ruk county council ever ever!
Now thinking of resigning.Moving to more
interesting things to do ,so dull n boring ,the nest months as far as I can see,long long mtgs with contrary ppl ,endless travel ,training n emails,rein it in on the social media ,
moi ?. Barry doesn’t do dull and boring ,as u know .maybs gone up a seriously irritating, brain-numbing branch line and the pay is so poor for all u do .pushy others demand incessantly . admins strangely n leaders on the bigbucks.
your thoughts.As the song goes – Should I stay,or should I go ?
Again, mere weeks into the job, he’s complaining that it’s boring and he’s surrounded by people nagging him to do things.
‘Difficulties obtaining constructive responses’
The Parish Council post also went on to detail another formal complaint against Cllr Martin:
Stretton Parish Council’s second complaint, submitted on 9 September 2025, detailed concerns about the councillor’s use of local Facebook groups to post political content, and repeated public posts instructing or naming parish contractors rather than following established channels by contacting the Clerk. The complaint also described mischaracterisations of the councillor’s authority over parish responsibilities and difficulties obtaining constructive responses on matters within the councillor’s remit.
As an example of Cllr Martin’s manner of communication with local authorities, the following is a public Facebook post he made:
Hi.
Your new SCCouncillor Barry Martin here .
Would Stretton
police,pcsos
plz contact me on barrymartin162@gmail.com.We need more police presence ward.Also wish to discuss making Stretton first Neighbourhood watch ward in England.
Police need all the help they can get.
That is, by the way, what appears to be his private email address. As a councillor, he also has an official .gov email address for formal communications.
‘Alien life discovered’
Likewise, as a more general example of Martin’s public social media posting:
Alien life discovered .
MALI ?
do u come in peace ?
Our leader,u ask ?
-Nigel Farage …
stomar ,a lie n .
And, of course, the inevitable Reform UK racism:
Shoplifting bs!
2 fatasianmalethieves just walked into Coop , filled
rucksacks n walked out ! beivin thastards !
The formal complaint was also reviewed by a monitoring officer, a standards panel and an audit and standards committee. They recommended that:
- The complaint should be upheld.
- The findings should be published and reported to the relevant authorities.
- Cllr Martin should be removed from his current committees and external bodies.
- Cllr Martin should lose the party whip.
- He should also receive additional code of conduct training.
‘Our leader,u ask ?’
Writing about a Reform UK councillor potentially losing the party whip for his incoherent posting would be prime fodder for a tongue-in-cheek article. It would be so easy to make jokes, to copy the writing style for laughs.
The conclusion would be short and trite — isn’t it ridiculous that this man was ever elected? Can Reform not go even 5 minutes without bringing a local council into disrepute?
The problem is that Martin was elected, along with a slew of others like him. Sure, they can’t muster the competence to run Stafford, nevermind the UK, but people nevertheless voted for them. And, as things currently stand, Reform UK are currently topping the voting intention polls.
At their very best, far-right authoritarians like Reform are unprepared to do the actual work of politics because they believe that local bureaucrats sit around and get paid to do nothing. They say that they’ll cut such waste and find savings through efficiencies that never materialise.
However, when they apply for the job and actually get it, they’re suddenly confronted with hours of meetings and endless travel. This panics them. They didn’t apply for actual work – after all, everyone knows politicians do no work.
But then, there’s the flip side of the far-right coin. Authoritarians don’t respect proper communication channels or worry about reflecting well on their party because these things don’t actually matter to them.
This is the danger of Reform, and UKIP, and the far-right at home and beyond. Their stark incompetence is part of their ideology, and it’s a tactic, part of their arsenal. They dream of leadership — of authority — without rules, beyond the ones they make.
Featured image via the Canary
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