It was founded in 2020 by a group of five Brexit Party councillors on Derby City Council.

Although it serves as the local affiliate of Reform UK, it is a separate entity.

Armstrong claimed that the Derby city council was not operating within "common sense" for supporting high density housing projects in city's downtown despite the development being an entirely private venture as well as praising that there was no local Reform whip, meaning each elected Reform Derby member is free to express their own opinions and vote their conscience.

Derby News, however, criticized the party's 2023 "contract" for not being a typical manifesto, and for largely overlapping with the 2018 UKIP manifesto and for including a statement criticizing that housing was "now unavailable to Derby born residents" which Armstrong denied, as he wasn't born in Derby, as well as refusing to differentiate illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.

That party's councillors, 23 of the total of 51, walked out of the council chamber in protest.