Three councillors who have resigned from Reform UK have “conned ” voters and “betrayed” those who helped get them elected, the party has said.

Lyndsey Fox, Nicole Brown and Paul Sexton have had their party affiliation changed to independent on the Durham County Council website, external, although none has given precise reasons for their shift.

It leaves Reform with a small majority, with 51 councillors, on an authority the party emphatically won control of when grabbing 65 seats at last year’s election.

Council leader Andrew Husband told the BBC the three former members “have let their residents down” but he offered no explanation for their departures.

Fox, who represents Bishop Auckland, confirmed her departure from Reform to Cathy Newman on Sky News, external on Tuesday.

The councillor said she had reported a “very serious safeguarding issue” to the party on 14 July but “had heard nothing” since.

Neither she nor Reform has given details on what the safeguarding issue was.

She made further allegations about a “group chat going wild” and said she had been “thinking about resigning for quite a long time”.

Sexton, who was elected as an independent in Chester-le-Street before switching to Reform, confirmed he had resigned from the party but declined to say why.

The BBC has also made attempts to contact councillors Brown, who represents Aycliffe South, and Fox but they have yet to respond.

The BBC asked Durham Reform a series of questions including what the safeguarding claims were, what reasons the three had given for resigning and what was being done to address the issue of councillors leaving the party.

In response, Husband said: “These people have let their residents down.

“They have conned them using Reform colours and betrayed the many members who spent their time and money to help get them elected.”

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