A balmy autumn evening and a visit to Hartlepool. The town gets a bad press sometimes, but it was looking good on 15 September. The Art Gallery in Church Square reflected the low sunlight.
Extraordinary times
I was in town to attend an extraordinary meeting of Hartlepool Borough Council, The meeting had been called to nominate a new council leader, due to the unexpected resignation of the previous one, Graham Harrison. Back in May this year, Reform UK formed a minority administration in Hartlepool following the 2026 Local Elections. Reform’s local leader Councillor Harrison took over as leader of the council. But he’s only lasted four months. I entered Hartlepool Civic Centre through some sort of greenhouse.
Pomp and ceremony
I was directed to the Council Chamber. At 6:30pm, all in attendance stood for Ceremonial Mayor Sue Little as she entered the room, preceded by the mace bearer. One of the mayor’s key roles is to chair meetings of the full council.
A minute’s silence
Mayor Little asked the attendees to remain standing while a minute’s silence was observed for the two police officers, PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough, who had died while on duty in the A66 crash near Middlesbrough on 22 August. This was followed by a round of applause. It was a sombre moment, as Matthew Blades’ funeral had taken place at St Joseph’s Church in Hartlepool only six days prior to this meeting.
Start the clock
Here’s a transcript of the meeting, which took just over a minute:
Mayor – First of all apologies for absence. [The clerk read out a few names]. Any declarations of interest? No. Any other business? No. To consider the following: Appoint a Leader of Hartlepool Borough Council.
Councillor Graham Harrison – I’d like to nominate Councillor Dave Bruce.
Councillor Mike Young – I’d like to second him.
Mayor – Any more nominations from the floor? No? Uncontested and elected. That concludes the meeting.
Stop the clock
So, that was that. The session continued informally while the opposition leader, Labour’s Martin Scarborough said a few words of thanks to Graham Harrison for his service over the previous four months. Councillor Scarborough looked forward to working with the new leader on changes to the council governance structure, as directed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) This will move Hartlepool council’s decision-making process from a “committee system” to a cabinet one.
But what was behind all of this?
Graham Harrison stated that he quit as leader of the council due to a change in his personal circumstances. However, he’ll remain as a councillor. Since Reform UK’s national surge in May 2025, there’s been a pattern of councillors resigning from posts after short tenures, or even quitting politics entirely. Councillor Harrison wasn’t even involved in politics before May 2026, but within days of his election he was leading a local authority responsible for 100,000 residents, and with net debts of £50mn. It’s possible that he found the situation overwhelming.
Succession plan
It was strongly rumoured that Graham Harrison would nominate Mike Young to succeed him as leader. But the thought of selecting former Conservative Councillor Young as Council Leader was, apparently, unpalatable to a number of Reform UK councillors, and Dave Bruce emerged as a compromise candidate.
What do we know about Councillor Dave Bruce?
Not much. He’s another one of the Reform UK May 2026 freshman intake. The council’s website describes a career in the engineering and manufacturing sectors. Dave Bruce is, or has been, a director of five firms listed at Companies House. One of the companies that he currently directs, Elstone Engineering, has been in liquidation since April 2024.
Baptism of fire
Dave Bruce’s first task will be to implement those far-reaching MHCLG-imposed governance changes. The Council’s Labour group has criticised several Reform UK councillors who didn’t bother attending recent governance workshops. Hopefully the new leader will be able to persuade his more reluctant colleagues to finally make a start on the job that they were elected to do. There’ll be seven portfolio holders under the new arrangements, each overseeing a large budget. But Reform UK hasn’t specified who will sit on the scrutiny committees, or how often they’ll meet. Two annual “State of the Borough” events, and some community roadshows are proposed. Would these really count as scrutiny?
Meanwhile, at a public authority near you
Hartlepool is one of the five constituency authorities of the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA). The council leadership could do well to learn lessons from the ongoing governance debacle at the TVCA. This led to the issue of a Best Value Notice by the MHCLG in April 2025, which still hasn’t been rescinded.
Houses of multiple occupation
But everyone in Hartlepool seems to agree on the urgent need to introduce an ‘Article 4 Direction’ to limit the blight caused by Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the town. The previous Labour administration held a consultation on this from September to December 2025, after which the Article 4 Direction was introduced. However, the law requires a mandatory 12-month notification period after the consultation closes, so the Direction won’t go into effect until 1 December 2026. Hartlepool was slow to take action on HMOs. Neighbouring Middlesbrough managed to do it nearly two years earlier, in February 2025.
It’s the economy
Hartlepool Council froze council tax for the current financial year, 2026/27, but approved a precept of 1.98% for social services. This budget was proposed by the previous Labour administration and was passed unanimously by all councillors on 3 March 2026. This budget would have set a challenge for whoever took over the council in May 2026, and so it has proved for Reform UK.
We’ve only just begun
By 30 June, only three months into the financial year, Hartlepool Children’s Services were already £6.36mn over budget. On 16 September, the day after being elected leader, Councillor Bruce told the Hartlepool Mail that “we are currently projecting an overspend of more than £5mn in the current financial year, driven in large part by the increasing number of children entering the care system”. Two days after Dave Bruce’s interview with the Mail, I reported on the squeeze being felt by neighbouring County Durham due to pressure on social services. Rinse and repeat for Hartlepool and the entire country.
Crunching the numbers
After the meeting, I met with some Labour councillors and asked why their group hadn’t contested Dave Bruce’s nomination as council leader. Surely, from a total of 36 councillors, 14 of them Labour, the party could have tried to swing the vote with the assistance of some of the seven independents? I was told that two of the independents tend to vote with the 15 Reform UK councillors. Taking into account the remaining independents, and absentees from the meeting, the numbers weren’t there.
Leadership chat
I then grabbed a word with Martin Scarborough, who told me that the Labour Group hadn’t even considered contesting the nomination. Councillor Scarborough said that this extraordinary meeting wouldn’t even have taken place if Graham Harrison hadn’t stood down. Reform UK is still the largest party in the chamber, so they deserve the opportunity to run the council until this ceases to be the case. It’s worth noting that 12 council seats will be up for election on 6 May 2027.
Touch and go
Just up the road in Durham, yet another group has just splintered from Reform UK. Right now, Councillor Bruce has to settle seven new portfolio holders into place, and hope that the Reform UK councillors who aren’t selected don’t throw their toys out of the pram. In the coming months there’ll be more angst as those portfolio holders try to protect their fiefdoms from the brutal cost-cutting of the 2027/28 spending round. Will Dave Bruce make it to May 2027 as Council Leader? Challenging times ahead.
Thanks to James Waterson for providing additional research for this article
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