Reform Watch: Neo-Nazi AI slop, free speech rows and more on Matt Goodwin
Each week we cast our eyes over what Reform have been up to – from bizarre proclamations to the detail of how their attempts to run councils are going.
The Lead is keeping an eye on Reform UK and their fellow travellers. Get in touch on X, Bluesky and Instagram or email ella@thelead.uk with tips and stories. We especially want to hear from readers whose local council is now run by Farage’s followers.
Channel 4 revealed this week that the Crewkerne Gazette, a platform that creates distinctly right-coded “satirical” AI videos while claiming to be apolitical, is the work of none other than convicted neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine.
Bonehill-Paine was a prolific online troll in the 2010s. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison for multiple hate crimes against Jewish people, including then Labour MP Luciana Berger, now Baroness Berger.
Via the Crewkerne Gazette, Bonehill-Paine, who claims to be rehabilitated from his extremist views, has managed to gain significant political influence, generating over 100 million views.
Bonehill Paine’s content is particularly popular with Reform UK. The Reform UK - Kent Facebook page boasted just days ago that it had been recognised as a “top fan” of the Crewkerne Gazette.
For an apolitical “satire” page, the Gazette goes surprisingly easy on Nigel Farage, making videos such as “Nigel In The Rave” and supporting his anti-immigrant stance. As recently as December 2025, the Crewkerne Gazette posted a video featuring an AI-generated young punk Farage making light of allegations of antisemitic bullying while he was at school. Farage for his part has posted at least one of Bonehill’s videos, calling it “a little bit of fun”. Will he delete the post now it’s clear the “little bit of fun” is an endorsement from a Nazi propagandist? ■
A councillor who boasted that Reform UK was deliberately underplaying a hardline stance on immigration to maintain mainstream appeal has been readmitted to the party. The Lancashire Lead broke the story of his suspension in November, after which he held his hands up and told us: “It’s the right thing to do.”
Pickup could still face disciplinary action from Lancashire County Council as he is subject to at least one internal complaint as a result of those Whatsapp messages. That investigation is ongoing, though the action any authority can take is extremely limited and can include measures such as a public rebuke, mandating training and requesting that the councillor issue an apology. ■
Zia Yusuf was on top FREEDOM form this week, threatening to defund Bangor University after the student debating society politely declined a request to speak from MP Sarah Pochin (who, you’ll recall, doesn’t like seeing black people on TV) and TikToker Jack Anderton, Nigel Farage’s Gen-Z Goebbels.
Outlets including the BBC, Daily Mail and Telegraph screeched that the society had “banned” Pochin and Anderton, in spite of the rather glaring fact the debating society had no obligation to host Pochin and Anderton, and that Yusuf’s Trumpian threat to the university (which had nothing to do with the decision) was significantly more of a threat to civil liberties than a members’ club deciding who it did and didn’t want to speak at its events. ■
And finally, on the Goodwin front…
Reform UK is facing a police investigation after breaking electoral law in Gorton and Denton – where Matt Goodwin is running in the upcoming by-election. The Manchester Mill reported that a letter commissioned, printed and sent by Reform to local residents (which was printed in faux-handwritten text) from a local pensioner, did not include an imprint explaining that they were from the party — which is illegal.
Reform blamed its printers, Hardings in West London, who first said all their proofs were checked by their customers before printing. However, another follow up saw Hardings take full responsibility: “after showing Reform the proof and having it cleared, Hardings then accidentally removed the only legally significant part of the letter from every single copy, and sent them out. It was entirely Hardings’ fault, they accepted full responsibility.” ■
In the run up to this month’s by-election, we’re keeping tabs on the right-wing agitator Matt Goodwin, who is standing as the Reform UK candidate in Gordon and Denton. Be sure to get in touch with any tips to ella@thelead.uk