Walsall by-election winner is suspended from Reform UK just six months after shock victory in Pelsall
The winner of a shock by-election in Walsall has been suspended by Reform UK just six months after his election victory.
Councillor Graham Eardley was elected as the Reform candidate in the traditional Conservative stronghold of Pelsall in September last year.
It is understood that the suspension relates to a complaint from a party volunteer alleging aggressive behaviour.
He denies any wrongdoing.
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A statement from Reform UK said: "Graham Eardley has been suspended from Reform UK with immediate effect, pending investigation.”
A source inside the party said Councillor Eardley had to be escorted from a building by security following the altercation.
Councillor Eardley said the allegation was nonsense.
"I was provoked into shouting by the complainant, there is history between us."
Councillor Eardley won last year's by-election, caused by the sudden resignation of former council leader Garry Perry, by 55 votes over Conservative candidate Lee Chapman.
Councillor Eardley was first elected as a Conservative councillor in the early 1990s, but later defected to the UK Independence Party.
Following his victory on September 11, Councillor Eardley said it showed there was no such thing as a safe seat in the borough.
He pledged to be a 'pain in the backside' to the council establishment, and warned his rivals that 'the people's army is on the march'.
Mr Chapman and his wife Jade, who was a serving Tory councillor, have since defected to Advance UK.
Mr Perry, a councillor since 1998, served as leader of Walsall Council from June 2024 to May 2025.
Announcing his resignation, Mr Perry said he had been subject to 'a sustained campaign of political attrition’ and ‘bullying dressed up as politics’.
