A Reform UK councillor has been accused of being “completely absent” after it was revealed he has sent just two emails and attended one council meeting since beginning his job in May.
Northumberland County Councillor Shaun Knowles has been accused of “wasting taxpayer money” by taking £9,340 of his salary since taking office six months ago.
Despite receiving 948 emails from May to mid November – a Freedom of Information request revealed he has only sent two messages from his official address.
Conservative councillor Wayne Daley, who sent the request, said he has tried to contact Mr Knowles numerous times after being “inundated” by his constituents in Cramlington South West saying he does not respond.
He said he and councillors on Cramlington Town Council have been “picking up every bit of constituency work” for him, and called on him to resign.
“It makes me so angry that someone who has been elected is basically abusing the system and abusing the people who have put their faith in him, it’s appalling,” Mr Daley told The Independent.
“I’ve tried to contact him, I’ve emailed him multiple times, called him, sent a text and had nothing back. He is in a party who say they are interested in value for money – yet he has claimed every single penny of his allowance for doing nothing.”
Mr Knowles has only been to one council meeting in November, almost six months since his election in May. This meant he avoided automatically losing his seat, which happens when a councillor doesn’t attend any formal meetings for six consecutive months.
Mr Daley added: “In reality, he has one option which is to resign. He is letting constituents down and his party. He is ripping his constituents off by giving them no support – he is completely absent.
“This is why people should see that what Reform say and what Reform do are completely different things.”
The Independent has contacted Mr Knowles for a comment, but have not received a response.
The party gained its first 23 councillors in the Conservative-run council in May, stopping the Tories from winning the 26 seats needed for overall control.
The May elections saw Reform UK sweep to victory in 12 councils across the country, including it’s flagship council in Kent where it won 57 of the 81 seats.
On Thursday, former Conservative leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Ben Bradley, announced his defection to Reform UK.
Mr Bradley, who lost his his Mansfield parliamentary seat in last year’s general election, has been appointed as Reform UK’s “head of local government action”.
His new role will focus on reducing council spending, though the party has denied that this appointment risks undermining Nigel Farage’s pledge that Reform would “not become the Conservative Party 2.0”.