Karl Johnson has had a whirlwind three months.
Before May, he was a businessman who would drive around his home city of Wakefield wishing the potholes could be fixed.
After standing for Reform UK in the local elections, the keen musician found himself the leader of Wakefield Council after his party won 58 of the 63 seats on offer and ended decades of Labour majority rule.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing – already two councillors, Steve Lewis and Rhys Carr, have left Reform to sit as independents, and a third, Nick Farmer, has been suspended by the party.
It is now 100 days since the Annual General Meeting when the party were sworn in – but are they delivering the change they promised and that people voted for?
I spent an afternoon in Wakefield city centre with Johnson to find out.
As the ballots were counted on 8 May, Reform in Wakefield didn’t have a leader or a deputy.
Johnson was elected to lead the group within days, and 10 days later was leader of the council.
The former rock singer’s flowing hair makes him a recognisable figure, and on a walkabout in the city centre, people constantly stop him to chat, thanking him for responding to their emails and talking about the difference they believe Reform are making.
He does have some political experience, having previously served as a Conservative councillor, and says he wants to make Wakefield a better place for all.
“I used to drive through the streets and think we should be doing this, we should be doing that – fixing potholes, improving the roads, stuff that matters to people.”
His interest in highways was backed up at May’s first council meeting, when Johnson told members he would double the budget for road markings by “repurposing Net Zero funding”.
He also promised to “undeclare” the city’s climate emergency.
Johnson points out the new markings and road surfaces around us, claiming to have found the money from “waste” under the last administration, enabling him to increase the budget from £41,000 to £82,000.
“People deserve a smart city centre, and not only have we done the surfaces and the white lines, we’ve washed all the paving down, we’re getting rid of the graffiti, we’re listening to local businesses.”
Road markings across the district will now be reviewed.
Wakefield Council initially declared a climate emergency seven years ago, with a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
Johnson tabled a motion to axe the declaration in June, despite having backed it as a Conservative councillor in 2019.
“I’d actually say it’s a very popular policy that we have got and we’ve been applauded for it.
“We’re saving hundreds of thousands of pounds in this district to be able to then put back into things that residents and local people actually need.”
Green Party councillor Kate Dodd, who opposed the motion, disagrees.
“To suggest this is not an emergency and not something that urgently needs to be tackled is frankly irresponsible.”
