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Reform UK has chosen to side with candidates who have promoted conspiracy theories online, called the climate emergency “made up” and expressed skeptical views on vaccines.
These fringe views and more were presented by a group of seven candidates selected to run for the right-wing populist party in the next general election – including several who will contest seats that some analyzes say are their primary targets.
Pointing out the kinds of beliefs Reform is willing to give a platform to, he said he was “proud” to present them as prospective parliamentary candidates (PPC) on Thursday.
Among the views the party has publicly endorsed is Chris Farmer’s claim that the climate emergency was concocted as cover for a plan to put dictators in positions of power. PPC for Gloucester also said a group of mayors representing the world’s leading cities were trying to use the climate emergency to justify banning people from traveling in private cars.
Reform also supported Trevor Lloyd-Jones’ promotion of online content related to The 15 Minute Urban Conspiracy Theory.
Lloyd-Jones, who is the party’s candidate in Aldershot – identified as one of Reform’s main targets – has gone viral anti-vaccine content on Facebook, as well as a post falsely claiming former health secretary Matt Hancock had been “murdered [pensioners] with midazolam and called it Covid”.
The party also backed Lynne Murphy – their candidate in Easington, another key seat – who referred to a “made-up climate crisis” and said: “You’re delusional if you think the world is going to end because of climate change.”
In recent months, Reform has been forced to drop a number of PPCs for expressing objectionable views, raising serious questions about its vetting processes. a party that according to some surveys is in third place. Earlier this month, party leader Richard Tice said it was publishes its list of candidates for media scrutiny from her name.
But Reform appeared to change tack recently, days later telling the Mirror it was backing a candidate accused of posting racist messages online – characterizing the posts simply as asking “leftist leadership questions”.
Also deemed acceptable behavior by Reform was Hamish Haddow’s claim that the RNLI, which is often called to rescue people who have tried to cross the Channel to reach the UK, was “working as a taxi service for illegal immigrants” .
Haddow, the party’s PPC in Chipping Barnet, has reportedly been dropped as the Conservative candidate for the 2022 local elections after saying he supported Vladimir Putin. This did not prevent his election as a Reformer.
The party also backed Andrea Whitehead, who posted online about the chemtrail conspiracy theory, which claims that the vapor trails left behind by planes are evidence that malevolent forces are spraying the population with dangerous chemicals.
Also deemed acceptable by Reform this week was Alex Stephenson’s promotion of anti-vaccine content online. In addition, the would-be candidate for the key Amber Valley seat is promoting some of the conspiracy theories pushed by the former Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, who lost the whip in January after comparing the use of Covid vaccines to the Holocaust.
Reform said it would stand behind PPC Noel Matthews, who is also a party official often responsible for rejecting fellow PPCs whose views are deemed too toxic.
Matthews, who ran unsuccessfully in 2019, was re-elected for the next general election with the knowledge that he had reportedly defended convicted fraudster and far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson online and that Islamophobia was “made up”.
Far from distancing Reform from such views as those put forward by the seven PPCs, a party spokesman indicated that some were in line with official party policy.
A spokesperson claimed the newly discovered posts were just “a series of people posting mostly comedic memes and questions about issues that affect many people in the country”. The spokesman added: “Some of their views may be considered eccentric, but nobody here is malicious.”
The spokesperson confirmed the party supports opposition to the “net zero and climate change agenda” and believes the Covid lockdown is “harmful to the country, its economy and the well-being of its people”.
Whitehead said she sees the publication of her chemtrails posts as an opportunity for “free advertising.”
Matthews insisted he never said Islamophobia was made up, adding: “I’m not denying there is unwarranted hatred of Muslims in society and I abhor it.” He said he was quoting someone else when he tweeted the words “Islamophobia is stupid , a made-up word’. And he did not respond to a request to clarify how his denial squared with a separate tweet: “Is it Islamophobia or Islamophobia? I missed it when that word was coined.
Lloyd-Jones declined to comment. None of Stevenson, Murphy, Farmer or Haddow responded to requests for comment.
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