A Reform UK councillor who said she had received “very little or no training” for her role has withdrawn her resignation after mistakenly sending her letter to the wrong council.
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Christine Duffy, elected in May to represent the Town ward on Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, submitted her resignation letter to Kidsgrove Town Council on August 4, the BBC reported.
She later said she no longer intended to quit and would continue serving the residents who elected her.
Resignation sent to wrong council
In the letter, seen by the BBC, Duffy said she had decided to step down because she had received “very little or no training” for the role.
However, the letter was delivered to Kidsgrove Town Council rather than Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, where she serves as a councillor.
Under Electoral Commission rules, a councillor cannot withdraw a resignation once it has been received by the relevant authority. Duffy, however, said she changed her mind before the letter reached the borough council's proper officer.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council chief executive Gordon Mole confirmed that the resignation had not taken effect.
“If a councillor wishes to resign then they must follow a specific process as set out in the Local Government Act 1972,” Mole said, adding that the letter had been hand-delivered to an incorrect address.
“By the time it was received by me, as the proper officer, I had been notified that the content of the letter had been withdrawn and the councillor concerned continues to serve as a borough councillor.”
Duffy says she will continue as councillor
In a statement shared by Reform UK Newcastle-under-Lyme, Duffy said she was not resigning and remained committed to representing the Town ward.
“I am not resigning as the borough councillor for the Town ward and I remain committed to representing the residents who elected me,” she said.
Duffy also said she was “appalled” that her resignation letter had been made public.
According to the BBC, she claimed political rivals had used the letter in an attempt to force a by-election.
Questions over how letter was made public
Duffy had previously served on Kidsgrove Town Council but left the authority in October 2024.
Mole said he was seeking an explanation over how the letter, which Duffy considered private, was shared publicly by a third party.
Kidsgrove mayor Mike Stubbs called for the matter to be investigated, saying the public was entitled to expect “competent, timely and transparent administration” from their local authority.
He said the handling of the episode had reached a point where “confidence in the process is being undermined.”
