Islamophobia, racist threats, Holocaust denial: Comments by newly-elected Reform councillors

The local elections held across England, Scotland and Wales on 7 May symbolised a dramatic shift in the traditional two-party system of British politics, with Keir Starmer’s Labour suffering large losses and Nigel Farage's Reform UK winning over 1,300 council seats and 13 councils.

Media coverage of the election results highlighted Reform's gains in councils across the country.

They received the biggest jump in vote share of any party, although their overall share was less than it was in 2025, according to national projections published by Sky News.

With Reform under the spotlight, several alleged cases of racist comments made by newly elected councillors have come under scrutiny, with backlash circulating on social media.

Middle East Eye takes a look at some of these alleged comments.

1. 'Melt them all down and fill in the pot holes'

Glenn Gibbins recently attracted attention after the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg interviewed Reform's deputy leader, Richard Tice, asking him about alleged comments made by the newly elected councillor on Facebook.

A Reform councillor for Hylton Castle in Sunderland, Gibbons allegedly wrote a post on Facebook in 2024 that read: "Carnt [sic] believe amount of nigerians in town.....should melt them all down and fill in the pot holes!!". 

Other posts that he allegedly wrote called immigrants arriving by boat an "army of Muslims who will in time turn on us," while saying in a separate post that "OUR TOLERANCE IS THE MUSLIMS GREATEST WEAPON,” after asking “why carnt [sic] we DETAIN THEM".

The comments were reported by the anti-racist organisation Hope Not Hate in early May, before the elections.

The BBC reported that the case was "under investigation," citing a Reform UK spokesperson, but that he has not been suspended from the party.

2. 'Master race'

A joint investigation by the Mirror and Hope Not Hate found that Stuart Prior, who was elected to represent Reform UK for Rayleigh West in Essex, allegedly wrote a post on X (formerly Twitter) declaring white people the "master race," separately stating that white people had bigger brains than Black people.

In another comment under a post by MP Zarah Sultana calling out the racism involved in the rape of a Sikh woman, and a separate assault case targeting a woman of Punjabi heritage, he allegedly wrote that it was "good" and that they should "reap it".

He is also alleged to have written a post referring to Muslims as "rats", declaring that "there cannot be a genocide against Muslims".

He denied being a racist when approached by the Mirror about the alleged posts, saying: "I don't recall that at all, blimey", "Goodness me, that is not me, 100% not" and "No, this isn't me."

3. 'I am Islamophobic'

A councillor for Chelmsley Wood, Phil Tierney, was featured in an article by the Daily Mail in the run-up to the elections for alleged Islamophobic social media posts, including one on X in which he wrote "I am Islamophobic".

The Mail reported that he reposted an image saying that no "Muslim should be allowed to hold any office," branded Islam as a "plague" and called for all mosques in the UK to be closed. 

Farage has previously distanced himself from Robinson, saying: "I don't want him to join Reform UK."

A Reform spokesperson told the Daily Mail last week that the party was "thoroughly investigating these allegations".

4. 'The Holocaust is a hoax'

In an investigation by the Liverpool Echo published over a week before the elections, the councillor for Bootle West, Jay Leslie Cooper, was said to have commented under a post mourning American conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk, denying the Holocaust. 

He is alleged to have said that "the Hallocaust [sic] is a hoax. There wasn’t [sic] even 6 million Jews in Europe at the time. Propaganda".

The Jewish Chronicle has since reported that a Reform UK spokesperson told them that the party is in the process of revoking his membership after Cooper resigned from the party, meaning he will now sit as an independent councillor.

5. 'Shoot [them]'

Derek Bullock was elected in Hulton, Bolton Council, after having previously been suspended twice from the Conservative party over alleged racist and anti-Muslim social media posts, prompting him to stand as an independent before later standing as a candidate for Reform. 

Under a Facebook post reporting on the terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in 2017, he allegedly wrote: "Shoot the Pakis on the spot", using a racial slur directed at Pakistanis and other South Asians.  After Hope Not Hate reported the comments, he denied that they were real.

They also reported that he wrote a Facebook post expressing his interest in encouraging Muslims to join the Islamic State group to "help re-balance England’s population & make-up".

6. 'Blast [Muslims] off the face of the earth'

In one case, a man who initially stood as a Reform UK candidate for Clayton and Fairweather Green in Bradford before standing down due to backlash over re-surfaced racist posts, won the seat anyway.

"They are not scum and that was a bad thing to say and I regret it. I've offered to step down from the elections," he said.

Although he stood down as a candidate, his name still appeared on the ballot papers, and he was subsequently elected, winning the highest share of the vote.

7. 'Breeding like rats'

Ben Rowe, who became a councillor in the Plymouth Ham Ward last week, was suspended from Reform UK on Monday. The party said they were "thoroughly looking into his social media posts", which have since been deleted.

In April, the Times reported that Rowe, through an anonymous account on YouTube, urged an anti-Muslim mob throwing bricks at riot police protecting a mosque to "get rid of that filthy building" during the 2024 Southport riots.

Using the same account, the Times also reported that Rowe left comments accusing "the Jews" of "creating division by forcing other races on our societies" and that he accused immigrants in the UK of “breeding like rats”.

Middle East Eye reached out to Reform UK for comment regarding the statements made by the newly elected councillors, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.