Reform Quietly Welcomes Back Councillors Suspended Over Racist Social Media Posts

Reform councillors who made racist social media posts have quietly been allowed back into the party following investigations.

Glenn Gibbins was elected to Sunderland city council in May and suspended just a few days later over posts on social media complaining about the “amount of Nigerians in town” and saying: “Should melt them all down and fill in the pot holes!”

After the now-deleted posts were initially reported, deputy leader Richard Tice refused to criticise Gibbins and accused the media of “smearing” his party.

However, Gibbins was later suspended. Last week, Reform said he was back in the party.

Reform also reinstated Ben Rowe, who was suspended days after winning a seat on Plymouth city council for a number of social media posts.

In April, the Times reported that Rowe urged protesters throwing bricks at police defending a mosque to “get rid of that filthy building” during the 2024 Southport riots. In February this year, he accused “the Jews” of “creating division by forcing other races on our societies” in comments beneath a YouTube video. He also said immigrants are “breeding like rats”.

Following the investigation, he complained on Facebook: “I’ve had things posted, years ago, taken out of context.”

In near-identical statements to local media last week, a Reform spokesperson said that both Gibbins and Rowe had apologised and been “readmitted to the party and issued with a final written warning”.

Rowe told the BBC: “I’m happy I’ve been reinstated.”

Reform gained 1,435 councillors across England at the local elections in May, but a number were quickly suspended or stepped down over posts on social media. The party’s vetting process has long been a source of controversy, as it has attempted to retain a respectable image without alienating its support base.

Last year, Reform introduced less stringent, “common sense” guidelines and encouraged people previously barred from standing for the party to try again. But in January, Farage admitted that in the past its vetting had been “piss poor”.

While this is not the first time Reform has readmitted councillors following controversies, the recent examples come as the party is facing a challenge from its right in the form of Restore Britain. Restore is a splinter party led by Rupert Lowe, a former Reform MP who had a dramatic falling out with Farage.

Polling suggests that Restore could be splitting the rightwing vote enough to deprive Reform of victory in the Makerfield byelection, paving the way for Labour’s Andy Burnham to become prime minister.

Restore has attracted a number of extremists to the party. Earlier this month it reinstated James Munro, a former member of fascist political party Homeland and now-defunct neo-Nazi group the Scottish Nationalist Society. Munro has been pictured posing with a flag featuring a symbol based on the Swastika. (Munro said the ten-year-old picture was taken in a “different time” when “there were no legitimate avenues for young men in nationalism, so back then you had to get dirty”.)

Munro was initially told by a local organiser that his Restore membership was “not good for the party’s values and direction due to past associations that are incompatible with our principles”, before the national party intervened and readmitted him.

Restore appears to be appealing to voters who would have otherwise supported Reform, in part by using unabashedly inflammatory language about migrants. Lowe, for instance, said he would put asylum seekers on an island with midges and “let the midges do the rest”. Among their criticisms, Restore supporters accuse Farage of using “cancel culture” to oust Lowe, after he criticised Reform as a “one-man personality cult”.

In response, Farage appears to have amped up his rhetoric. When footage emerged of the death of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in police custody, he said “white lives matter”. On Sunday, Farage launched a Substack in which he said Britain is a “two-tier state – against white people”, using more racially-charged language than he has tended to in the past.