Council worker resigns over treatment by Reform officials

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 27 Oct, 10:32 · Archive

A former Leicestershire County Council monitoring officer resigned after being treated poorly by Reform councillors.

Lauren Haslam, a former monitoring officer at Leicestershire County Council, resigned due to the way she was 'treated and spoken to' by members of the Reform administration after they were elected. A monitoring officer is a statutory senior officer who oversees complaints, legality, ethical standards and procedural fairness of a council's decision-making.

The resignation followed a Facebook post by Reform Councillor Joseph Boam. Leicestershire Live reports that investigators found Cllr Boam had selectively edited Mrs Haslam's response to his question at a November 2025 meeting asking whether a rise in complaints was 'from far-left activists trying to cancel and silence Reform UK councillors'. She replied: 'No, I wouldn't agree with that statement, thank you.' He published only her three-second initial reply, deliberately omitting her further explanation.

The edited post led to comments accusing her of bias and of being a 'nasty piece of work'. Mrs Haslam asked Cllr Boam to remove the post, but he did not acknowledge or respond to her email nor remove it, prompting her to lodge a formal complaint. Cllr Boam faces two conduct meetings on Friday 30 October following separate investigations into whether he breached the members' code of conduct.

How it is being reported

• Leicestershire County Council worker resigned due to the way she was ‘treated and spoken to’ by Reform councillorsA former council worker quit her post due to the way she was “treated and spoken to” by members of the Reform administration after they were elected.Harborough Mail · 27 Oct, 09:56
• Council worker resigned due to the way she was 'treated' and 'spoken to' by Reform officialsShe said she 'could not bear to view' a Facebook post made about her by one councillorLeicestershire Live · 27 Oct, 06:00

In this story: Lauren Haslam · Joseph Boam · Reform UK · Leicestershire County Council · Leicestershire

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