Last month, Reform UK gained their first borough councillor in Stevenage after Mason Humberstone defected from Labour, with the Old Town representative becoming the first councillor in England to move from Labour to Reform.
He spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service to explain the reasons behind his decision, what he makes of the reaction to it, and why he won’t be calling a by-election.
First elected as a Labour councillor in 2023, Cllr Humberstone said he joined the party because of his “working class background”.
“I come from that traditional strand of Labour of hard graft, aspiration, family, community, country.
“When you get involved in Labour because it’s your natural home, you come from lifelong Labour voters like my friends, neighbours and family.”
But he says that after his election he was “met with a starkly different reality”.
“The issues that people care about are dismissed, and it gets to the point where I don’t even know what Labour represents anymore because it’s definitely not me, it’s definitely not my family, it’s definitely not my friends, it’s definitely not residents.”
He says he stood for re-election as a Labour councillor in May last year and backed them at the last general election because he believed they were a party “that was going to put our country first, was going to be tough on the issues that people cared about and was going to uplift and build the British dream where if you work hard you can have a home to call your own, access to good public services, a bit of extra money on the side, and to be able to actually succeed and do well by your family.”
But he continues: “That’s not happening. Bills are up, the party is mired in scandal, we have stagnation, wages are stagnant, everyone is struggling.”
He also accused Labour of looking down on those who have put up union and St George’s flags in recent months, describing them as people who are “trying to show pride in their country”.
He suggests Labour no longer “stands for the values and principles of hard-working people” and says the move to Reform UK – the process of which took “a couple of weeks” – came because he felt “this party is speaking up and saying the things which are important to so many people”.
Cllr Humberstone believes Reform policies will “uplift” people, pointing to their plans to increase the threshold at which people begin paying income tax from £12,570 – part of the £90bn of tax cuts promised in Reform’s manifesto but now described only as an “aspiration” by deputy party leader Richard Tice, and which party leader Nigel Farage says would come after cuts to public spending are made, not before.
Cllr Humberstone says: “That’s going to help so many people, including myself. I’m not some well-off individual; I’m a working-class lad who’s struggling just like my residents.
“When you’re seeing answers that will uplift so many people, that’s why so many people are attracted to them … it felt like a natural place for me to go, somewhere which is actually going to represent hardworking people across the country and in our community, and the values and principles I was raised upon.”
He says Reform will “make decisions that are pragmatic and based on common sense”, and continues: “It’s not about left and right, it’s about right and wrong.
“They’re going to breathe new life into our country, ensure that we’ve got growth, and ensure that we’re cracking down on the chaotic and illegal migrant mess that successive governments have failed to deal with.
“Successive governments have failed in this nation for decades, and the Tories and Labour need to take responsibility for it.”
And, while the Labour leader of Stevenage Borough Council, Richard Henry, said Cllr Humberstone should call a by-election and accused Cllr Humberstone of moving for “political gain”, he claims his defection was a move that comes with an “immense personal risk”.
Is he worried that if he called a by-election following his change of allegiance, he would be voted out of office by Old Town residents? He claims that he would “100%” win a by-election, but says he won’t call one because “there’s not a precedent” for it and because it would “waste tens of thousands of taxpayers’ money when I’m up for election relatively soon”. He is due for re-election in May next year.
Cllr Henry also criticised Cllr Humberstone’s record as a councillor, saying that he “brought many challenges to the table in terms of his attendance, punctuality, adherence to commitments, dedication to the role and much more”.
Cllr Humberstone has been at 10 of the 30 council meetings he was expected to attend over the last year, including five of the 11 most recent meetings.
He says he was “not surprised” by what he calls “the vitriol and the bitterness” from Labour, and accuses Cllr Henry of showing “double standards” on attendance, pointing to three Labour councillors who have 58%, 50% and 25% attendance over the last six months (figures rising to 71, 63 and 47% respectively over the last 12 months), and plans to allow a councillor to miss more than a year of meetings on grounds of ill-health.
Cllr Humberstone himself has attended 33% of meetings over the last year, and explains: “I was in my final year at uni and I was working in the evenings to make ends meet … a lot of people will know exactly the reality I was trying to battle.
“Despite that, I was still taking calls, dealing with issues, always having my residents’ backs.”
“Compared to the majority of my time as a councillor, it was only a dip in that period”, he says, pointing to his 88% attendance record between May 2023 and October 2024.
During his time as a student, Cllr Humberstone was elected as BAME Officer for Labour Students – a point noted when he recently posted on social media that he “never signed up to be called BAME”. How does he square those two positions?
He says: “It was something I was heavily pushed to do.
“It’s an example of the identity politics within Labour and the only opportunities which they see people like myself can take.
“It’s a complete contrast in Reform – you’re valued for your attributes, your skills and what you can contribute, and that’s how it should be.
“We will never get to a colour blind society if we continuously categorise people … it comes from the left saviour complex.”
He says Reform UK represent “common sense” and will make “practical choices which are going to change our country”.
Cllr Humberstone claims he has “never been a tribal politician” and he is now representing the third party of his political life, having stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2018 borough council elections.
What lay behind his decision to stand for them? He answers: “I briefly volunteered with the Lib Dems. I applied for Labour and the Conservatives. This was when I was studying politics, so it was almost like work experience, really.
“They needed a paper candidate, so I was more than happy to take into account the wider political experience.”
Asked whether he agreed with the Lib Dem platform at the time, he says: “I was a young lad really. I think we’re all evolving politically. I wouldn’t really say that’s … relevant in that sense.
“I had just turned 18 when I was a paper candidate and when I was volunteering.”
Now, he’s looking forward to the council meeting on Wednesday (October 15) – his first on the opposition benches.
He says: “I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to actually being in a position where I can have people’s backs.
“I will provide strong scrutiny and a strong voice for residents, and raise the issues they care about, issues that are never talked about in those chambers.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge of opposition, I’m looking forward to actually being a real representative because we lack them at the moment.”
Kumail Jaffer is a Local Democracy Reporter covering City Hall and London-wide political news, with a focus on housing, transport, policing, regeneration and issues affecting communities across the capital. Before joining the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he worked as a political and foreign correspondent for national newspapers including the Daily Mail.
