Illustration: Cornwall Political Watch · AI-assisted
The Highwayman pub recording
Reform UK Cornwall · 18 October 2025
Last updated:
From the Twelve-Month Collapse investigation
This page extracts the audio, transcript, and analysis of the Highwayman recording from the full Reform UK Cornwall collapse investigation. For the surrounding twelve-month timeline and the rest of the collapse story, return there.
After “An Afternoon With Ann Widdecombe” at Dobwalls Memorial Hall on the afternoon of 18 October 2025, a group of Reform UK members and councillors moved to The Highwayman pub in Dobwalls. What was recorded over the following minutes — by an as-yet-publicly-unnamed individual, on a phone — captures the operational dispute that defined Cornwall Reform's autumn.
Audio Recording — The Highwayman Pub, Dobwalls
18 October 2025 · After "An Afternoon With Ann Widdecombe" at Dobwalls Memorial Hall
What's on the recording#
Groves repeatedly presses Parsonage on three things: that he and his branch chair counterpart had stood down as branch chairmen because they could not hold both branch and Cornwall Council leadership roles; that Roger Tarrant was being replaced as Camborne, Redruth & Hayle branch chair by “Nathan Michell,” recommended by Tarrant himself; and that the existing Reform Cornwall constituency Facebook pages were being closed and replaced with six new ones aligned to parliamentary constituencies, in order — Groves quotes from a message — to prevent “certain actors who are in the process … of trying to take control of the narrative in Cornwall by removing branch chairmen in favour of their own plants.” A bystander interrupts to ask Groves why proxy votes had been blocked at a recent meeting and why a meeting was held in Saltash rather than centrally. Groves dismisses him: “That man has no idea.”
Groves names the off-tape regional director who, she says, made the decision to install Michell: “[Paul Mills] had decided to put that Nathan in situ” — adding, “I'm really glad that you're recording this because I will ask Paul Mills that, 'cos that's news to me.” Mills — Reform UK's South West Regional Director, the subject of a separate CPW dossier — was named publicly by role and name in subsequent reporting: Cornwall Live (11 November 2025) carried a Reform UK national spokesperson quoting that “only the regional director (Paul Mills) can appoint a branch chairman”; The Guardian (16 November 2025) named Mills in its Cornwall long-read.
The unidentified bystander, walking out, calls the situation “a disgusting situation … totally underhand, totally treacherous.” Ian Brown then defends Andrea Lovett to the same bystander: “Speaking to Andrea like that is disgusting, and our lawyers will be involved. Go away, you horrible, odious little man. Odious little man.”
What happened next. A copy of the recording was emailed anonymously to the Cornwall Local Democracy Reporting Service. Cornwall Live, Yahoo, Dorset Eye and others reported on it. Within seven days, Parsonage had stood down as group leader; within thirteen, he and three other councillors had left the party. Cornwall Live characterised the row as “the final nail in the coffin” for his leadership.
Read next#
- Reform UK in Cornwall: The Twelve-Month Collapse →
The full twelve-month timeline this recording sits inside.
- Alison Groves — dossier →
The dominant voice on the recording. Then County Organiser (West Cornwall); now Vice Chair, Camborne, Redruth & Hayle branch.
- Paul Mills — dossier →
Reform UK's South West Regional Director. Off-tape; named on the recording as the man who decided to install Michell.
- Nathan Michell — dossier →
The branch chair appointment at the centre of the dispute.