A NEW political party that hoped to fight for all 98 seats at this year’s Wiltshire Council elections has had to set its sights a little lower.

Reform launched in April 2016 with the aim of changing the face of British politics.

But the party has stumbled and now looks set to field just two candidates in May – and at parish, rather than county level.

The party will compete for seats on Salisbury City Council.

Party treasurer Colin Skelton, who came third as an Independent candidate in the 2012 Wiltshire and Swindon police and crime commissioner election, said optimism had faded after “broken promises” from those who had pledged the party support.

Mr Skelton said: “It has not gone as planned, and we now won’t be running a candidate in every single ward and division.

“It is disappointing, and I thought that people would stand up against the usual candidates.”

Labour city councillor Tom Corbin said Reform might “muddy the waters” in the city, and asked what strategy the party would have with so little support.

“I cannot see anyone taking them seriously and I feel sorry for them as it is a big thing to try and do,” he said.

“Salisbury has Independents, and Reform are not going to do anything different.”

Conservative group leader Matthew Dean said that Reform UK Salisbury did not come up on the first pages of Google when searched.

“I’ve never heard of them,” he said. “Who are they and who are their candidates? Who bankrolls them?

“They certainly have never revealed themselves at any public meetings I’ve been to in Salisbury.”

Reform previously aimed to run for each UK parliamentary constituency by the 2020 general election.

Mr Skelton, who previously spent 20 years in counter terrorism research as a civil servant, said his party was planning to use the city as a “springboard for further success”.