Reform UK criticised for applicants’ offensive posts

Reform UK is fielding native election applicants who’ve “posted hate, pushed far-right conspiracies and praised extremists” – in spite of Nigel Farage’s declare to have beefed up the celebration’s vetting procedure, marketing campaign staff Hope Not Hate has stated.

Reform UK, which has recruited greater than 1,600 applicants for 1 May’s English council elections, has made a lot of its efforts to “professionalise” the celebration after a chain of racism scandals eventually yr’s normal election.

Speaking at a marketing campaign tournament in Dover on Thursday, Farage stated the celebration had installed position “a vetting system that was as good if not better than the other parties” for this yr’s elections.

The Reform UK chief stated “hundreds of people who applied to be candidates for the county council elections were rejected… often because of repeated use of words beginning with F and C on social media.”

He stated others were rejected “because they just said things that were just ridiculous, outrageous, embarrassing”.

But Hope Not Hate, an anti-racism marketing campaign staff which has clashed with Farage prior to now, stated the examples it had discovered undermined his vetting claims.

On Thursday final week, the gang revealed main points of social media posts it had discovered from 14 other present Reform UK applicants.

The BBC has spent the previous seven days checking the posts and in the hunt for a reaction from particular person applicants, in addition to the celebration’s head administrative center.

We despatched a number of requests for remark to Reform UK HQ however have not begun to obtain anything else again.

The posts observed by way of the BBC come with:

• A Reform UK candidate pronouncing “one big nuke bomb” will have to be used to take away Islam from the sector
• Another pronouncing Bradford has a big Muslim inhabitants and is a “shithole”
• Others selling the conspiracy idea that Muslims are in the hunt for to “supplant the native population” in the United Kingdom

Some of the posts, on Facebook or X, had been made this yr, others date again as much as a decade.

They seem to have been open to any individual to view when Reform UK decided on and vetted the applicants however some have now been hidden or deleted.

Steven Biggs is a Reform UK candidate hoping to win a seat in Pelton in North Durham on 1 May.

On the Reform UK site he says he’s “standing for Reform UK because they stand for good old fashioned traditional values”.

In August 2015, he posted on his Facebook web page that “Islam has no place on this earth. One big nuke bomb needed”. The BBC showed that submit used to be nonetheless visual final week, however by way of this week it perceived to had been deleted.

Biggs has additionally many times posted hyperlinks to Britain First, the anti-Islam political celebration, on his Facebook account.

The BBC tried to touch Biggs for remark by way of telephone however he didn’t answer.

Another of the Reform UK applicants highlighted by way of Hope Not Hate is Isaiah-John Smith Reasbeck, status in Hexthorpe and Balby North in Doncaster.

On 6 August final yr, Reasbeck wrote on X “Bradford has one of the biggest Muslim populations in Europe it’s also one of the biggest shitholes in Europe draw your own conclusions”.

When the BBC checked the account of the consumer @ij_Reasbeck the submit used to be visual final week. It has since been deleted.

The account, on the other hand, stays energetic and identifies Mr Reasbeck as a Reform UK council candidate.

The BBC contacted Reform UK’s Doncaster department in the hunt for remark from Reasbeck. None has been gained.

Other posts the BBC has been in a position to verify had been made by way of Howard Rimmer, who may be status for Reform UK in Doncaster, hoping to win in Roman Ridge.

On 16 January this yr, Rimmer reposted to his Facebook web page an merchandise from the “Traditional Britain Group – Lifeboat” which describes itself as “a home to the disillusioned patriot”.

The staff’s submit stated: “We are importing low IQ people and when they commit heinous crimes they are given more lenient sentences by the Judges as they are ‘Low IQ and don’t understand our way of life'”.

It additionally referenced “the Great Replacement”, a conspiracy idea that elites are in the hunt for to exchange the populations of western countries with immigrants.

That submit used to be nonetheless visual this week, along side different pieces Rimmer has reposted, together with a graphic titled “How Islam is colonising non-Muslim countries”, one thing, the graphic stated, used to be “known as Demographic Jihad”

Several occasions prior to now yr, Rimmer reposted pieces about a long way proper activist Tommy Robinson, together with one describing him as anyone “vocal about the importance of celebrating British identity, culture and values” and every other pronouncing “Batley needs these people”.

The BBC has contacted the chair of Reform’s Doncaster department by way of e mail and call a number of occasions however has but to obtain a reaction.

Another candidate whose posts the BBC has observed is Trevor Bridgwood, status in Bardney and Cherry Willingham in Lincolnshire.

Bridgwood, who has previous hyperlinks to the Conservatives and UKIP, shared an editorial on his Facebook web page in 2015 titled “The Goal of Muslim Immigration” which stated it used to be “a means of supplanting the native population” of a rustic. He added his personal remark “now does this not look like what is happening in the news?”.

The BBC emailed Bridgwood for a reaction final week however has no longer gained a answer.

Hope Not Hate, which is funded by way of particular person donations and industry unions, says this is a nonpartisan marketing campaign that “focuses on the organised far right,” one thing Farage has many times insisted does no longer come with Reform UK.

Reform UK is chaired by way of a Muslim, Zia Yusuf, and Farage has stated he “never wants anything to do with” Tommy Robinson, rejecting calls from some contributors to permit him to sign up for Reform.

In 2024, Reform UK dropped numerous applicants it had decided on for the overall election over offensive feedback on social media.

Following that, Farage informed the BBC “I had no idea how bad it was. I had no idea that half of these people simply haven’t been vetted – that’s got to change.”

At a celebration press convention in February, Yusuf stated the brand new device “while it will not be perfect” used to be “the most thorough vetting process of any party, I think I can say that with confidence and conviction, certainly at the council level.”

In contemporary weeks feedback by way of different Reform UK applicants, apart from the ones recognized by way of Hope Not Hate, have additionally come to mild.

Earlier this month, Reform UK stood by way of a council candidate in Leicestershire over a racist submit accusing black drivers of tailgating.

Responding to the resurfacing of that submit Elliott Allman, a Reform candidate for Leicestershire County Council, claimed he had “matured” because the submit.

And, one at a time, East Hunsbury Parish Council has warned Reform candidate Ron Firman after previous tweets with racist and sexist slurs got here to mild.