The alliance of independent and Green councillors that has come together to form the official opposition at Lancashire County Council is “undemocratic” and an insult to voters, says a top Conservative.
County Councillor Aidy Riggott, the new Conservative group leader at County Hall, made the claim after his group secured the second-largest number of seats at this month’s elections.
However, the Progressive Alliance group leaders rubbished his claim, saying the Tories were unable to hold Reform to account as "at a national level they want to be more and more like Reform".
One other party group leader dubbed the alliance "a bit weird" and suggested the argument was mainly to do with the extra pay the opposition leader receives.
The Tories lost control of the countywide authority after being swept aside by Reform UK, which comfortably won control of the council.
That arrangement will see seven Independents and four Green Party members combine to sit as the main challengers to the new Reform UK administration.
County Cllr Riggott – who leads the eight remaining Conservatives at County Hall – has criticised the alliance, claiming it has no mandate and is incapable of representing a broad cross-section of public opinion in Lancashire.
He said: “This is clearly undemocratic, and it’s just wrong.
"Reform won fair and square – they are the administration and we, the Conservatives, came second, so we should be the [official] opposition group.
“This option of ‘Progressive Lancashire’ just wasn’t on the ballot paper for residents to show their support for it.
“From what I’ve seen, the Independents – especially those in Preston and Burnley – seem to be entirely focused on their own specific areas, which, of course, is what they’ve [been] elected to do.
"But how they’re going to represent the views of all of Lancashire when challenging this new Reform administration, I just don’t know.
“[The Conservatives] have a wide network of councillors at district and parish level for ensuring proper county-wide representation of views. Progressive Lancashire and its smaller sub-groupings do not have any of this.
“They have no way of getting down to the grassroots and understanding what residents are raising across the county."
He also launched a blistering attack on the Progressive Lancashire leadership – the Labour-turned-independent, Azhar Ali, and his deputy and Green Party leader, Gina Dowding.
He added: "I thought Cllr Dowding’s political career was supposedly built upon ideals around fairness, but they suddenly seemed to have deserted her when Cllr Ali came whistling.
“It’s mind boggling Cllr Ali believes standing as a solitary, individual representative in Nelson gives him a mandate to form this new grouping and be the leader of the opposition.
"It is just outrageous to think that is an appropriate position for him to occupy."
Cllr Ali was a Labour councillor until allegedly anti-Semitic comments by him arose during his tilt for the Rochdale parliamentary by-election in February 2024, leading to his suspension from the party. He then resigned his Labour membership to run as an Independent, and was reelected in this month's local election.
Cllr Dowding said: “How can we possibly trust the Conservatives in Lancashire to hold Reform to account when, at a national level, the Conservative Party seems to want to be more like Reform as every day passes.
“Plus, the [election] statistics County Cllr Riggott is quoting all point to the fact that he thinks there should be a fairer voting system.
"But he’s never argued for that in the past, because it’s always suited him.”
County Cllr Ali said it was “tragic the Conservatives haven’t woken up to the fact they were kicked out of office only a few weeks ago and lost heavily – they went from 48 seats to eight”.
He added: “It is absolutely democratic for groups to come together to hold the new Reform administration to account.
"The last thing people would want is, after eight years of Conservative rule of Lancashire County Council, is for them to be marking their own homework.
“County Cllr Riggott was involved in making those decisions – and now wants to scrutinise his own decisions, which is farcical.”
Labour's Cllr Mark Clifford – who now heads a group of five county councillors – would not be drawn on any discussions with the Greens and Independents.
He said: “It would have been good if the majority of opposition groups could have joined together.”
Cllr John Potter, leader of the five-strong Liberal Democrat group, said an opposition coalition was “a bit weird and plays into the Reform ‘them versus us’ mindset”.
“I do wonder how much of this argument is actually about the extra money that comes with being the leader of the largest opposition group," he added.
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