Reform Watch: New report reveals extreme views of Reform’s local election candidates
From Islamophobia to praise for far-right agitators, a Labour-compiled dossier reveals extremist sympathies among Reform UK candidates standing in this week’s elections.
A string of Reform UK candidates for this week’s local elections have made violent, Islamaphobic, racist and antisemetic comments, according to a recently-released dossier.
As part of its local election campaign, the Labour Party released a report identifying Reform UK candidates “with views that are extreme, bizarre and offensive”. From supporting fascism and outright racism to anti-NHS sentiment, Reform Revealed: The People Behind Reform contains information on 45 candidates, including two who were covered by The Lead’s correspondents in Southport and Lancashire.
At least 16 candidates had shared conspiracy theories, 12 had made Islamophobic comments, 10 supported fascist and far-right agitators like Tommy Robinson and Britain First’s Paul Golding, four expressed or endorsed homophobic and sexist views, three were antisemitic, and two posted pro-Russian propaganda.
Among those posting conspiratorial and anti-Islam comments was the Reform UK candidate for Birkdale Ward, Mark Ormsby. As The Southport Lead reported last week, Ormsby repeatedly shared videos uploaded by far right figures Tommy Robinson and Paul Golding among a string of Islamophobic content. As well as frequently referring to government figures as “treacherous”, he regularly compared UK policing to the Gestapo and repeated two-tier policing conspiracies in a feed which was almost entirely devoted to anti-Islam posts.
In 2024, Golding posted an image of Humza Yousaf leading prayers as the then Scottish First Minister and wrote: “Scotland. Conquered by mass immigration.” In response, Ormsby commented: “Unbelievable. Tirkeys [sic] voting for Christmas except Christmas would be banned. How could we be so suicidal?”
Neither Reform’s Southport or Sefton branches responded to questions from The Southport Lead about the incident.
Meanwhile, in Lancashire, Reform UK backed its Blackburn South-East candidate Andy Mahon, telling The Lancashire Lead the party “believes in freedom of speech.”
In a series of now deleted Facebook posts on his personal account, Mahon used the ‘n’ word, made sexist and offensive remarks about new Green MP for Gorton and Denton Hannah Spencer, and references to former Labour deputy leader and Angela Rayner being overweight.
The posts also included homophobic remarks about health secretary Wes Streeting and posts to suggest Prime Minister Keir Starmer would appoint paedophiles such as Gary Glitter and Jeffery Epstein as ministers.
Some of the most shocking Reform UK candidates also include Derek Bullock, of Bolton, Hulton, who was expelled from the Conservative Party for using a racial slur to call for people of Pakistani heritage to be shot, and Ricky Hodges in Hastings, who called for the Prime Minister to be shot.
Caroline Panetta, in Bexley, shared this quote: “Islam is the religion of rape, incest and pedophilia”, and shared the leader of Britain First Paul Golding’s videos. She wasn’t alone in her support of far-right groups; Sharon Barker of Droylsden West in Timeside said Tommy Robinson deserves a knighthood, despite the fact that her party’s leader Nigel Farage has put significant legwork into distancing Reform UK from Robinson.
Sexism – such as Alan Stone from Basingstoke suggesting women should “bear responsibility” for sexual assault – and antisemetic slurs and conspiracy theories also featured in the dossier.
And then there’s the anti-vax sentiment: Elizabeth Clarke, in Bury, questioned if “protecting granny [was] worth it?” after alleging vaccines killed children adding; “our NHS wants canning”.
Last week, three Reform UK candidates were expelled from the party over alleged former membership of the British National Party – John Black in Blackburn, David Prior in Saltwell and George Parnell in Hampshire. The expulsions were the result of an investigation by anti-racist campaign group HOPE Not Hate and the Mirror which revealed a leaked list of BNP members and contacts from 2007-2008.
After a string of controversies in the previous General Election, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage promised his party would have stricter vetting of candidates than ever before. Then last summer it dropped that strictness in favour of what the party calls “common sense” vetting.■
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🗳️Keep your eyes across our Lead Local network this week as we’ll be covering all the local elections fall-out with a focus on the Valleys of South Wales, Calderdale Council elections, the battle for Sefton and Lancashire district council elections. We’ve also been out on the streets speaking to voters in Lambeth, Southport and the Valleys:
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What’s striking is less the individual cases and more what it suggests about incentives and structure.
If parties expand quickly without robust vetting, you don’t just get a few bad candidates you risk building a pipeline where extreme views slip through as a byproduct of growth.