“I’m the group leader of… a very small group. You know, we could have our meetings in the broom cupboard”
So begins my chat with Conservative group leader at Preston City Council Cllr Harry Landless.
It’s been a chastening few years for the Conservatives, to say the least.
The run of Prime Ministers from Boris Johnson through to Rishi Sunak, with a pitstop at Liz Truss, proved a disaster for the party that it has struggled to recover from.
This has an impact locally – whether the performance of the Prime Minister is a fair reflection on local politics or not. A decade ago, the Conservatives had 19 councillors at Preston City Council. Today, they have three (though the number of councillors total was reduced in that time) and that means that this series focusing on new faces at Preston City Council has to bend its own rules in speaking to the Conservative leader alone.
Cllr Landless says: “We’re fighting a hell of an uphill battle in terms of our PR. We really took a battering and it’s going to take an awful long time for people to be confident that we’ve changed.”
For the Preston Conservatives, that doesn’t really mean ‘we’ locally. The aftermath of a general election typically sees support swing towards the opposition in what you might call ‘protest’ votes locally. But instead of the Conservatives seeing the benefit of that, after 14 years of a Conservative Prime Minister, it was Reform UK who surged in popularity.
As part of that, a number of Conservatives have switched over to Reform UK and been elected on the back of it. Cllr Stephen Thompson, who is Reform UK’s leader in Preston, is one such local politician. But it’s a red line that Cllr Landless can’t consider.
He says: “There are similarities but there are issues we’re never going to agree on.”
When pressed, he adds: “Immigration – their policies don’t sit easy with a lot of diehard, decent Conservatives. The extremes that they would want to go to and the way they talk about boat people and sending people back.
“And when they talk about climate change – I just can’t agree with what they believe. I just feel miles apart from them. I listen to what they say and they’re allowed to stand up and say it. But the Preston Reform UK councillors are quite bright people and they’re making contributions.”
So that’s a firm no to at least one further defection from the Conservatives to Reform UK. But it does leave questions as to what the diminished Conservatives can achieve. For Cllr Landless, it has to mean doing their job and doing it well.
He says: “The priority for the three councillors [including Cllr Sue Whittam and Cllr Mark Bell] is to engage with the community. Remind people that we’re still here and we’re still engaging and being rural councillors.
“Being a rural councillor is a bit different from the rest of Preston. We tend to be much more involved in planning issues – they can be controversial.
“We can only keep supporting people and reminding the rest of the council that the rural areas exist. We can ask questions and press the right people and show people that we’re representing their interests.
“We don’t fight on national policies. The last elections were disappointing because Reform UK very much fought on the lines of national issues. Even on their literature it was pictures of Nigel Farage and silly statements like ‘Preston is broken’.”
At that point we have to ask: Is Preston broken?
He says: “No, not at all.”
We’re chatting with the Cllr Landless in the outdoor area of the Toll Bar community café in the heart of Broughton. His daughter has served us a coffee each (paid for). He helps to manage the café as a result of his role on Broughton Parish Council. He also owns the Tap & T’Ales bar in Whittingham, having bought it from a friend during the pandemic. There’s a clear pride in the area he represents.
And while the Conservatives being down to three councillors is no cause for him to celebrate, he has enjoyed the new dynamic in council meetings now Reform UK and the Green Party have groups established.
Cllr Landless says: “I’ll qualify that it’s not great for us but it’s made for a much more interesting council. There are so many different points of view and it makes for a better debate.”
Something of a rarity in 2026 politics, he speaks reasonably highly of all the parties and ideas at Preston City Council. One opposition councillor who likely agrees with the Conservatives on little tells me Cllr Landless is an ‘absolute gent’.
Cllr Landless describes the Lib Dems as great campaigners. He may not agree with Reform UK on everything, but has been impressed with both their contributions and those of the Green Party. The developments of the city centre undertaken by Labour earn praise, though he says they’d have happened anyway.
He says: “The main difference is I think we’re a bit more down to earth and want more for rural communities, whereas everything seems to be city centre based. The city centre is great, but it’s just the city centre isn’t it?
“I think whoever was running the council would’ve delivered projects like Animate. We had the chance to be against, and we weren’t. It’s giving people a reason to go into Preston. My teenage daughter likes going there where she might not have done previously.
“It’s a focal point and there’s something to do.”
He continues: “Even the community bank [Preston City Council has agreed to invest £1m in a community bank]. The directors came in for a question and answer session. They’re talking about being sympathetic lenders, having branches on the high street and I’m just sat there ticking.
“The only reason we didn’t support it as a Conservative group is that we don’t think it’s the council’s function to be doing that.”
He is supportive of the plan to merge Preston with Ribble Valley and Lancaster to form a new authority, but describes himself as biased because he loves the Ribble Valley. He is not particularly in favour of Lancashire having a mayor, but cites the need to be pragmatic when the area is missing out on significant investment as the last northern area without one.
He describes the ‘Preston Model’ – the idea of keeping money in an area when spending – as mostly ‘shop local’ common sense but adds he is also in favour of finding the best people to do a job. He believes the future of any venue in Preston probably lies away from the Guild Hall.
He says: “The Guild Hall issue does need to be solved. Preston genuinely needs a venue and I really do believe that. But I don’t think keeping the existing Guild Hall is feasible. The question is how you pay for it, because it’s going to cost absolute millions and we’re never going to do it without government support.”
The interview comes as an interesting time for the Conservatives. There are many who believe, partly amid the various scandals Nigel Farage finds himself in, that Reform UK’s popularity is on the wane.
That, for the first time in years, gives the Conservatives locally room for optimism, he says. A particular blow for the Conservatives was losing a Preston Rural East seat to Reform UK – that of the former Cllr Steven Whittam. But, he says, that wouldn’t happen if an election was held tomorrow.
He says: “I was absolutely gutted about Steven. He fought an amazing campaign, he’s determined, hard-working and the amount of shoe leather he must have gone through. We just got beaten by the tide.
“My friend Cllr Thompson might jump up and down and give me a slagging off but the Reform UK wave is now slowing down. People don’t have the confidence in them that they used to.
“If we fought an election in Preston Rural East now, I think we would win it. And the elections for the new unitary authorities next year are going to be very interesting.”
Blog Preston is interviewing all the parties represented at Preston City Council after the 2026 local elections, with a focus on new councillors. You can read our chat with Reform UK here, the Lib Dems here and The Green Party here. Labour will come next.
