Stephen Reed - North East Derbyshire District Councillor for Killamarsh East | Reform Watch

Profile and accountability tracker for Stephen Reed, North East Derbyshire District Councillor for Killamarsh East. Reform UK.

Role: North East Derbyshire District Councillor for Killamarsh East

Party: Reform UK

Councillor for Killamarsh East on North East Derbyshire District Council, elected as a Conservative in May 2023 before joining Reform UK in February 2025. He leads the Reform UK group on the district council and also represents Clay Cross and Tupton on Derbyshire County Council, where he is Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Business Services.

Recorded incidents (showing 1-2 of 2)

Stephen Reed says council will ignore local reporter's inquiries

Category: abuse of power

Stephen Reed said the council would refuse to respond to inquiries from Eddie Bisknell and confirmed Bisknell's requests for information would be ignored. Reed said the reporter would still be able to write about the council and attend public meetings but that the administration would not engage with his inquiries. The decision drew criticism from Natalie Fahy, Dawn Alford and Laura Davison, who said refusing to engage with a journalist amounted to a ban, set a dangerous precedent and undermined local transparency. Reed denied an outright ban but confirmed the council would ignore Bisknell's information requests; the council said the move followed a prolonged period of concerns about the reporter's coverage.

Stephen Reed ended council engagement with a local reporter after making an incorrect claim

Category: factual inaccuracy

Location: Derbyshire

Stephen Reed announced that Derbyshire County Council's Reform UK leadership would no longer respond to requests from Local Democracy Reporter Eddie Bisknell, citing concerns about his reporting. Reed initially said the council had been given less than four hours to respond to a story, but later accepted that this was incorrect after Derbyshire Live published evidence showing it had been given almost 24 hours. He maintained that the leadership had other concerns about Bisknell's journalism. Derbyshire Live rejected the council's accusations, while the National Union of Journalists condemned the decision and called for it to be reversed.

Sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg59rp4lpvvo https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/reform-led-derbyshire-county-council-11177495 https://www.nuj.org.uk/resource/nuj-responds-reform-banning-local-democracy-reporter-derbyshire.html