TWO States Members elected under the banner of Reform Jersey are set to contest the party leadership next week.
Reform, which is Jersey’s largest registered political party, has been seeking to elect a new figurehead since previous leader Sam Mézec suffered defeat in his bid to be elected as a Senator.
Deputies Lyndsay Feltham and Montfort Tadier have been confirmed as candidates for the role of leader, which Deputy Feltham has held on an interim basis since Mr Mézec stepped down on 8 June.
Party chairperson Helen Evans confirmed that the new leader will be chosen by Reform Jersey members at a meeting scheduled for Thursday evening.
Deputy Feltham’s first involvement with Reform came when she represented the party in a St Helier by-election in 2019, losing out to rival candidate Inna Gardiner.
Subsequently she served as party chairman and as a member of Reform’s management committee. After her success in being elected to represent St Helier Central in the Assembly in June 2022, she became the party’s deputy leader.
She said: “I have shown that I can turn party values into actions and that’s the basis on which I’m running.
“It’s an important moment for the party and I will be looking to provide the principled and practical leadership as we move forward.”
Deputy Tadier was elected for his sixth term in the Assembly last month, having first been elected in 2008 and standing as a Reform Jersey candidate since the party was formed in 2014.
“We do have to pay tribute to the outgoing leader, Sam Mézec, because he worked very hard, led the party for the last 12 years and has done a lot of good work,” he said.
“I believe this is an opportunity for the party to look at what has worked and what needs to be enhanced or changed, and that’s something I wish to very much get to grip with straight away if I’m elected as new leader.
“What I’ve learned through winning, and then holding a seat in St Brelade, which is not an easy district, is that it’s really important for any party to have general and wider appeal – the key message for me is that the core values of our party haven’t changed.
“We’re here to ultimately be a voice for for people, especially those who are the most vulnerable, but we know that there are actually a lot of people in Jersey, even quite well-off people, who are suffering and struggling with different financial issues and I think it’s important that we are speaking to those people, and for those people as well.”
Both candidates acknowledged that it was an appropriate point for the party to consider whether it should be rebranded in the light of the emergence of Reform UK, the right-wing party which was founded after Reform Jersey but has subsequently emerged as a significant force in UK politics, particularly over the past three years.
Deputy Feltham said: “It’s an important thing to consider and something that was mentioned a lot on the doorstep.
“Proposals around changing the name will be a matter for the party’s executive committee to consider how to address – we don’t want a kneejerk approach, it’s important that it’s done properly.”
Deputy Tadier said: “We started off as a party where we had ideas about reform, including the electoral system – those things probably still need to be done at some point, but they’re not the priorities for us or for the public anymore.
“People are much more concerned about material issues, day-to-day issues, rather than constitutional reforms. so we need a name that reflects what our core values have always been, and that’s got to be something to do with that’s rooted in the Jersey community.”
