REFORM UK councillors on Devon County Council have elected a leader for their group.

Michael Fife Cook, who represents Yelverton Rural, will head up the party at the local authority.

Reform UK won as many as 18 seats on Devon County Council at the recent local elections, making it second only to the Liberal Democrats, who secured 27.

The Conservatives’ majority was wiped out in a seismic shift, leaving the party with just seven councillors.

The Green Party secured six seats, and independent candidates two. Labour lost all its seats.

No party has a majority, and the leader of the Lib Dem group has called for councillors to work together without a formal coalition.

Mr Fife Cook was “born into poverty in an old caravan with no wheels or tyres and no running water or electricity”, Reform UK said.

He was the first in his family to go to university. He has since served in the RAF, worked in a sand cast foundry, opened a vegetarian restaurant and started a computer company.

Since retirement, he has founded and directed a local community charity, served as a parish councillor and been a representative on the Devon Association of Local Councils.

“I am delighted to have been chosen as the leader of the Reform group on Devon County Council,” said Mr Fife Cook.

“I see our job as being in partnership at the forefront of decision-making for the 830,000 people we help serve.

“The council officers, from the scribblers to the chief executive, are there to advise us and help glean value for every penny spent, whilst our job is to make sure they are successful and to put a human face to all the decisions.

"Nigel Farage calls us the new party, the thinking party.

“We must return to a meritocracy and move away from a kakistocracy.”