Reform councillor accused of bullying

Harry Shukman

A Reform politician has been accused of bullying by his former colleagues.

Complaints of bullying made against Kevin Robertson-Hanlon, who defected from the Conservatives to Reform this year, were upheld.

Robertson-Hanlon is a councillor at Ponteland Town Council, where he was first elected under the Tories under the name Kevin Wilson. He defected to Reform this spring.

The council commissioned an HR company to hold a grievance hearing and found that there was “consistent and credible evidence” that he bullied a colleague. A case summary seen by HOPE not hate said a member of staff was signed off with work-related stress in October 2025 following interactions with Robertson-Hanlon.

The summary said Robertson-Hanlon was accused of “interruptions/over-talking” towards a colleague and “sustained” challenges in meetings. He was further alleged to have described their work as a “tick-box exercise”, questioned what they “actually” did between meetings, and made a remark referring to “knitting”. The cumulative impact of encounters damaged the staffer’s “wellbeing and [their] ability to carry out [their] role without distress”, the report said.

Robertson-Hanlon denied bullying or intent to cause distress, saying his actions were “legitimate scrutiny of governance and process”.

Part of the disagreements, we understand, come from his decision to record council meetings and post the videos on Facebook. One of these videos, from April 2025, shows a tense exchange between Robertson-Hanlon and Karen Overbury, then chair of the town council. Here is an extract:

Later in the meeting, another councillor described her dismay at what the issue of recordings had done to their group. “This recording is causing so much stress in the atmosphere,” they said. “And we are wasting so much time.”

Council meetings sometimes became farcical as Robertson-Hanlon insisted on his right to film meetings while his colleagues asked him to sit down and participate. 

The recordings issue was still live a year later. In a meeting this March, Robertson-Hanlon suggested council staff would try to subvert his attempts to have meetings filmed. “I’m not sitting listening to this,” Councillor Sue Johnson said, packing up her belongings to leave. “That is absolutely shocking that you could speak into our council and talk about lack of trust.” The chair said it was an “outrageous” thing for Robertson-Hanlon to say, asking him to withdraw his remark. He did not.

WhatsApp messages from a chat used by councillors also showed how Robertson-Hanlon called Richard Dodd, a male council colleague, “a sexist piece of shit” and “a sexist prick”. Two female colleagues came to Dodd’s defence and said they were unable to see how his comments had been sexist. Robertson-Hanlon continued, telling Dodd: “You shame the office you hold.” Shortly after, councillors began to quit the chat.

When we approached Robertson-Hanlon for comment, he said we had been drawn into a “long-running campaign of bullying and harassment” — but one that was directed by his former Tory colleagues against him. He said it was intended to drive him out of public life. 

“The suggestion that there was a finding that I bullied a colleague is incorrect,” Robertson-Hanlon said. “The document that you refer to was an internal summary of allegations. There has never been any grievance hearing.”

However, the HR document we have seen is labelled “Grievance Hearing” and specifies that a company was hired “to attend Ponteland Town Council to hold and conduct a Grievance Hearing”, which was done in February. Furthermore, the complaints within them were upheld, meaning there was sufficient evidence or witnesses to substantiate them, namely that a council colleague was signed off work due to the stress of interacting with Robertson-Hanlon.

Robertson-Hanlon said that he had been speaking to the police about these matters.

A spokesperson for the Northumberland Conservatives said: “We can confirm Cllr Kevin Wilson (now calling himself Kevin Robertson Hanlon) resigned from our party after findings which you are reporting were made by the independent investigator acting on behalf of Ponteland Town Council. This was before any Conservative Party disciplinary process could be gone through. Kevin has since joined Reform UK.

“We condemn bullying in all its forms.

“We appreciate Ponteland TC may have HR processes still to go through and so do not comment on those. It is now for Reform UK to act as is appropriate, our party now has no interaction with Kevin.”