Political Row Erupts in Stockton Over Reform UK Branch Meeting Rules

Reform UK Stockton Hits Back at Claims Branch Meeting Rules Were Ignored

Reform UK Civil War? Stockton Branch Row Exposes Growing Political Tensions

7th June 2026

A public dispute is said to have broken out between Reform UK and the newly established Restore Britain party in Stockton-on-Tees, with both sides offering sharply different accounts of whether a recent Reform UK branch meeting was properly constituted.

The argument centres on the quorum required for a Special General Meeting, or SGM, and whether local Reform UK members were adequately informed about an apparent change to the party’s branch rules.

Restore Britain’s Stockton branch has raised a series of concerns about the way the local Reform UK branch is being run, alleging that rules have been changed, members silenced and elections delayed while preferred candidates are placed in leadership positions.

The party said the people raising concerns were not “troublemakers”, but local volunteers and residents who had joined Reform UK because they wanted to make a difference.

Restore Britain Questions Quorum Rules

At the centre of the dispute is an online copy of Reform UK’s branch rules dated 17 November 2024. The document, which carries Reform UK branding but is hosted on a third-party website rather than Reform UK’s current national website, states that the quorum for an Annual General Meeting, Special General Meeting or Extraordinary General Meeting is 10% of the branch membership or at least 20 members, whichever is greater.

Restore Britain has questioned why a different threshold was apparently used for the recent Stockton meeting.

In its statement, the party said:

“The only publicly available Reform UK Branch Rules, dated 17 November 2024, state that quorum is 10% of members or 20 members, whichever is greater — not 5%. “If new rules were introduced in November 2025, why were members not informed?”

Restore Britain said it regarded the issue as part of a wider pattern of concerns reported by Reform UK members locally and elsewhere.

Reform UK Rejects Claims of 'Misinformation'

Reform UK Stockton-on-Tees has strongly rejected the allegations, describing them as “blatant misinformation”.

In a public response, the branch said the quorum requirement had been reduced to 5% when branch rules were updated nationally in November last year.

It said invitations to the SGM had been sent to 632 eligible members who had held membership for at least 90 days.

The branch calculated that 5% of 632 members was 31.6, meaning that at least 32 members were required for the meeting to be quorate. It said that threshold had been met.

The Reform UK branch also disputed the relevance of the older rules cited by Restore Britain, stating:

“Branch Rules were never on the party website and old rules were presented by a member from a third party unauthorised website.”

Reform UK rejected suggestions of division within its Stockton branch and pointed to a recent campaigning day involving local members.

Can Reform UK Change Its Branch Rules?

Reform UK’s constitution does appear to give its national board considerable authority over the operation of local branches.

The constitution states that the board may establish, suspend or disband branches and may “make rules concerning the structure and operation of branches”.

The older branch-rules document also states that the rules may be updated “from time to time” by order of the party board.

That means the existence of revised rules would not necessarily be unusual. However, the dispute is unlikely to be fully resolved unless the current version of the branch rules is published or made available to members, together with clarification about when the quorum threshold changed and how the change was communicated.

The Teesside & Durham Post has not independently verified the attendance list for the Stockton SGM or seen a copy of the revised rules said to have been introduced in November 2025.

Rivalry Between Reform and Restore Reaches Stockton

Restore Britain, set up my Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe has already attracted a number of former Reform UK Members

The row comes as Restore Britain continues to develop its local branch network after its launch as a national political party. Restore Britain is led by Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe, who previously represented Reform UK before sitting as an independent and later joining Restore Britain. The party is registered with the Electoral Commission, while Parliament records Mr Lowe’s current affiliation as Restore Britain, with the Stockton dispute suggesting that the developing rivalry between the two parties is no longer confined to national politics.

For local members and voters however, the central question remains relatively straightforward: which set of rules applied to the Reform UK meeting in Stockton On Tees, and were members really given a fair opportunity to understand them before decisions were taken?