Former Wellingborough mayor joins Reform and insists 'my politics have not changed'

After leaving the Conservative Party in August, former Wellingborough mayor Cllr Raj Mishra has announced he has joined Reform UK.

He said: “I came to this country legally, worked, paid tax and served this town as its mayor. I do not accept that the people who pay for this country should have less protection from it than the people who have tried to harm it.

“Reform is the only party that says what it will do about this and gives a date. Leave the ECHR (European Convention of Human Rights) so that a British court, not a treaty, decides who stays.

“Deport foreign criminals, with up to five flights a day and visa sanctions on countries that refuse their own nationals.

“No early release for terrorism, murder, rape or serious violence. Visible policing on the street. Put British citizens first in housing and benefits. All of it in the first 100 days, with ministers who resign if they fail.

“The government has failed the country, failed the people who voted for it, and failed the basic purpose of politics, which is to keep the people safe. I want a safe country. That is why I joined Reform, and it is why I will keep saying this until it changes.”

In a statement, he highlights key local issues which he believes Reform are ‘fighting to keep alive’ including the now-dropped Isham bypass, the lack of an urgent care centre at Isebrook, the town centre task force started by MP Gen Kitchen in 2024 whom he says has ‘not asked a single written question in Parliament for Wellingborough since’.

He also cited the Reform-led North Northants Council’s 10-year Town Centre Masterplan, and that NNC is running planning at 98 per cent of major applications decided on time, well above the national average.

Cllr Mishra added: “I have been impressed by what has been done here since May last year. None of it is in the gift of a town council, and that is the point.

“Where Reform has the power it uses it, where the government has it, it has not. That is why I joined. My politics have not changed, my party has.”

Cllr Mishra represents the Victoria Ward on Wellingborough Town Council alongside Faith Hewitt (Conservative) and Kelly Duddridge (Labour), and is also the chairman of the council’s planning committee.

Cllr Mishra was born in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, in India before moving to the UK in 2019.

He was elected to Wellingborough Town Council in May 2025 as a Conservative candidate, and just two weeks later was elected mayor for the 2025/26 year.

In August, Cllr Mishra left the Conservative Party to continue as an Independent, saying it was ‘a decision about how I can be most useful to you’ and that he ‘did not come into public life for a label.’

At the time, he said: “Sitting as an independent means that when something comes before the council, I can weigh it on one question alone. What does this do for the people of Wellingborough. That is the whole of it.”