Reform UK council backs release of beavers amid party row over rewilding

A Reform UK council has backed the release of wild beavers into the countryside, despite the party’s opposition to rewilding.

The Reform-led Leicestershire county council has backed the release of the rodents as part of efforts to reduce flooding.

The Labour government recently legalised the release of beavers in England, about 400 years after the animals were hunted to extinction for their fur and an oil they produce.

The animals are lauded by environmental campaigners for the habitats they create by damming rivers, which can reduce flooding during periods of heavy rain while also storing water in the landscape during drier months. They also have been found to improve water quality and boost numbers of bats, fish, birds, amphibians and invertebrates.

The Reform councillor Adam Tilbury, the council’s cabinet member for environment and flooding, told the BBC: “We all know Leicestershire is very badly affected by flooding, and beavers are great natural engineers who could be one part of the solution.” He said two potential sites for beaver releases in the area had been identified and that he also thought the rodents could boost tourism.

Joseph Boam, another Reform councillor in Leicestershire, celebrated the news, posting on X: “Reform UK-led Leicestershire is bringing BEAVERS BACK. Making Britain great again, one beaver at a time. Natural flood defence. Restored habitats. Real solutions.”

There has been a row within Reform over rewilding, including reintroducing locally extinct creatures such as beavers.

The nature campaigner and Conservative Environment Network co-founder Ben Goldsmith, was approached by Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, to help write the party’s nature policy. However, Reform’s business spokesperson, Richard Tice, rejected the idea of working with Goldsmith, whose ideas about releasing wild animals and returning farmland to nature have incensed farmers.

Farage said he was talking to Goldsmith and “interested in his ideas”, but the party has rejected large-scale rewilding proposals, saying such policies “are not aligned with its principles or objectives”. Goldsmith has released beavers on his Somerset estate and has been one of the most vocal advocates for the release of the rodents in the UK.

Commenting on the news that the Reform council was backing the release of beavers, Goldsmith told the Guardian: “Nature is at the root of everything. Protecting it must be a non-partisan goal, even if there may be debates on how to deliver nature recovery. If Reform going pro-beaver is an indication that the party will be bringing out an ambitious set of nature restoration policies, that will be tremendous news – not least because it raises the bar for the other parties as well.”

Farage recently criticised plans to replace figures on British banknotes such as Winston Churchill with wildlife, claiming the Bank of England intended to “replace people like him with a picture of a beaver”, and calling the move “absolutely crackers”.

Polling shows centre-right voters who might consider voting for Reform are put off by the party’s antipathy towards environmental policies. The party’s policy chief, James Orr, has been showing polling to top figures on the right that indicates more than 80% of Reform voters care deeply about nature, and that Tories who are more reluctant to vote for Farage’s party care the most of any voters about the issue.

Reform has been contacted for comment.