By Charlotte Hall & Declan Carey
With two by-election victories in as many weeks in Salford and Bury, Reform UK are expected to make major gains across Greater Manchester in the May 7 local elections.
The party spearheaded by Nigel Farage is fielding candidates in every ward in Greater Manchester for the first time this year, alongside the Conservatives, Green Party, Labour and Lib Dems.
It means voting for a new council representative could see ballots split in tight five-way races – or more in areas with established independent candidates.
All ten councils in Greater Manchester will hold elections for a third of all council seats this year.
But the rush to find so many candidates has led some to question how thorough Reform UK’s vetting process has been. Several Reform candidates and campaigners across Greater Manchester have been accused of sharing xenophobic, Islamophobic, or Anti-Semitic views, or circulating conspiracy theories on social media.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has seen posts including from a candidate who described an Orthodox Jewish community as a ‘demonic social structure’, an election agent who mused whether Enoch Powell – an inciter of racial hatred with his 1968 ‘rivers of blood’ speech – was ‘right’, and a nominee who appeared to have shared Covid-19 conspiracies.
A Reform UK spokesman said: “The allegations and posts are being thoroughly investigated.”
The number of Reform nominees alleged to have posted or liked ‘controversial’ content has not been lost on Labour, who are facing tough competition in many of the region’s traditionally ‘safe’ seats.
Last week, the Labour Party released a dossier pointing at a number of Reform candidates across the country who have what they describe as ‘dangerous and extreme views’.
Steve Reed MP, Labour’s Communities Secretary, said: “The idea that Nigel Farage thinks these candidates pushing vile racism, misogyny and conspiracy theories are suitable, is frankly staggering.
“It’s an insult to the public that Farage put these people forwards to stand in the first place, but it’s a dereliction of duty that he hasn’t condemned them nor pulled his support for them.”
Some Greater Manchester members of Reform UK have hit back at the dossier as a ‘politically motivated attack’. Nigel Farage has repeatedly promised to improve the Reform candidate vetting process, admitting in the past it was not up to scratch.
He defended the current measures following a series of controversial incidents involving candidates by stating that ‘sometimes people lie’.
Reform election agent says posts were shared for ‘freedom of speech’
In Stockport, the council is under no overall control, so councillors of all political colours are able to influence decisions made in the town hall.
The Edgeley ward, based just outside Stockport town centre, is held by three councillors from the Edgeley Community Association. The group was formed by ex-Labour councillor Matt Wynne in 2022 after a fallout with his former party. Reform’s candidate in Edgeley is Peter Marsh, supported by his election agent Dave Pinfold.
Posts shared on Pinfold’s X account have recently surfaced. It includes a post exclaiming that ‘Allah is Satan’, a call to ‘close all mosques’ in the UK, and a post showing a picture of a masked man with a pig outside a halal butchers. Most of these posts were shared by Pinfold in the last few months.
Pinfold was criticised for sharing the posts by Councillor Asa Caton from the Edgeley Community Association, who claimed that there appeared to be a ‘vetting gap’ in Reform.
Coun Caton highlighted a number of X posts which Pinfold shared, including one asking whether ‘Enoch Powell [was] right?’ and another which appeared to show an image of a crusader under the caption: ‘all united against Islam’.
Speaking outside his home in Edgeley, Dave Pinfold said: “I did mention to the candidate that some of the social media posts I’ve shared were controversial. I asked if I needed to go through vetting but was told it wasn’t needed because I’m an agent. The thing I’ll say is they’re not my posts, they’re shared from accounts that I follow.”
Asked whether he now regrets sharing the posts, Pinfold said: “We have freedom of speech and in hardline Islamic countries Christians are not allowed to practise their religion, that’s the point I would make.” Mr Pinfold has made his X account private.
Reform UK’s Stockport branch was approached for comment but has not responded. The party’s candidate in Edgeley, Peter Marsh, was contacted on social media but has not replied.
Mr Marsh posted on Facebook on April 23 saying he was continuing his campaign ‘despite the obvious smears from certain parties and supporters’.
He added in the post: “I have never posted racist slurs or shared pictures or memes that some would find abusive. No amount of AI will find evidence of that because its not there, in fact you will find very different information than that which is being pushed out if you did a deep search.”
‘It’s clear Reform UK’s vetting still isn’t up to scratch’
A Reform UK candidate in Waterhead, Oldham, has been slammed after xenophobic posts appeared on his Facebook account and the same account liked islamophobic comments.
Paul Taylor’s account showed a racist meme depicting Andy Burnham with brown skin, and liked comments stating ‘this is Great Britain not an Islamic colony for them scums’.
Hope Not Hate called out the discriminatory posts, stating: “It’s clear Reform UK’s vetting still isn’t up to scratch.”
Mr Taylor was approached for comment.
An Oldham Reform Group spokesperson dismissed the allegations as ‘a desperate political attack’. The spokesperson said: “Despite what the left might try and claim, opposing Sharia courts is not Islamophobic.”
Suspended campaigner becomes election agent
A Reform campaigner who was suspended during the Gorton and Denton by-election after he was accused of making anti-semitic, misogynistic, and transphobic comments on his X account is now acting as an election agent.
Adam Mitula claims the comments were ‘taken out of context’ and he is ‘no longer suspended’ from the party.
He is now legally responsible for the campaigns of three Tameside candidates: Aron Webb for Denton North East, Audra Murray for Denton South, and Daniel Bennett for Denton West.
Before his suspension in February, it was reported Mr Mitula had written posts in which he said he would ‘never touch a Jewish woman’ and claimed the Holocaust death toll had been exaggerated.
He reportedly claimed 60 to 70 per cent of transgender people are paedophiles. Mr Mitula has since deleted his X account.
At the time, former interim campaign manager for Matt Goodwin told the press: “I am currently suspended by Reform pending investigation, and I hope common sense prevails. I would like to apologise to anyone who felt offended by my comments, which were taken out of context.”
Mr Mitula claims he was unsuspended shortly after releasing his statement.
When contacted for this piece, he said: “My only comment is that I am no longer suspended.”
Reform candidate posted saying Covid was ‘b******s’
A Reform candidate in Bolton, Trevor Jones, has come under scrutiny for a Facebook post in which he appears to suggest the pandemic was fake.
The founder of the Bolton Reform group is gunning for town hall leader, coun Nick Peel’s seat in Tonge with the Haulgh.
The Labour Party dossier on Reform uncovered a 2021 social media post in which Mr Jones shared a roughly drawn digital image of a Covid virus with the words ‘ITS B******S [sic]’ in the middle. Mr Jones captioned the post: “1st image just released of the new Omicron Virus”.
The nominee did not respond to a request for comment, but shortly after being contacted by the MEN, he posted on his Facebook page: “I’ve just had a call from the Manchester Evening News saying that Labour has contacted them on a fb comment I posted five years back about covid.
“They have obviously scrolled through my fb which I leave open for anyone to view and all these panicking weasels can find is a drawing of a virus and a few choice words. Start looking for another job, Peel.”
Candidate accused of posting racist comments
Also in Bolton, a Reform UK council candidate was accused of posting racist comments on Facebook – allegations he claims are ‘fake’.
Derek Bullock, a former Conservative and Independent councillor on Bolton council, is standing as the Reform candidate for Hulton on May 7.
In April 2023, Mr Bullock was nominated to stand by the Conservative party in similar Bolton council elections. At that time, a screen-shot emerged which showed a Facebook post following the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, under the post an account which appears to show Mr Bullock’s name and profile picture commented: “Shoot the P***s on the spot.”
On the day nomination papers for the election naming Mr Bullock as a Conservative candidate were published in 2023, party chiefs terminated his membership.
Mr Bullock, who had been a councillor since 2019, remained on the ballot paper and subsequently won the election and sat as an Independent before losing his seat in the May 2024 elections.
The issue of the screen-shot re-emerged in an article published in the past week by the group Hope Not Hate, after Reform UK confirmed him as its candidate for Hulton.
This week, Mr Bullock said he believes the screenshot had been faked.
A spokesperson for Reform UK said: “Mr Bullock has always strongly maintained that this image is fake and has reported this resurfaced material to the police. It is also incorrect to claim that Mr Bullock was expelled from the Conservative Party for this post.
“Mr Bullock is a valued member of his community and is currently a trustee of the Asian Elders’ Resource Centre in Bolton.”
Previously, in March 2020, Coun Bullock faced disciplinary action from the Tories after it was alleged an article from an anti-Muslim activist’s “JihadWatch” had been posted on his Facebook.
In response to an article about former party chair Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, he reportedly added: “She’s been a cuckoo in the nest!”
And in another post, from February 2015, he was alleged to have shared a news article with the headline ‘Number of Muslim children in England and Wales doubles in a decade’, adding the comment ‘the clock is ticking’.
Greater Manchester Police were contacted regarding Mr Bullock’s assertion that he had informed them of the alleged fake post.
Salford’s first Reform councillor comes under spotlight
Michael Felse was elected as Reform UK’s first councillor in Salford last week in the Barton and Winton by-election.
He edged the race by just 33 votes ahead of Labour, but he has since faced criticism for comments made online in the past.
He commented below a Salford Star article in 2016 about UKIP’s candidate in that year’s election for Salford mayor.
Felse appeared to write below the article: “Just what Salford need. I see a honest man. Speaking his mind. Willing to listen. Open to new ideas. I would be a goonies n****g not to vote for this inspirationally talented man.
“As for the Labour Party’s hate for our Jewish community, I say send Livingstone to Auswitch – I visits 8 years ago and am still haunted by the site.
“I do not see one once of hate in UKIP’s Owen Hammond. Just a honest man that I truely am pleased to have forgone my election place to have him become Salford’s City Mayor.”
A Reform UK spokesman said: “Michael may have used some coarse language some ten years ago however, the voters of Salford had the opportunity to pass judgment on his track record and chose to elect him as their Councillor.”
Councillor shares regret over past comments
A Reform UK councillor in Bury expressed regret over comments he made in the past describing a community in the orthodox Jewish population as a ‘demonic social structure’ and comparing it to Al Qaeda and Isis.
Dr Shadman Zaman, the candidate for Pilkington Park, published a series of blog posts in 2020 after aborting a conversion to Haredi Judaism, a strictly religious community that lives in North Manchester and parts of Bury.
Dr Zaman accused the group of ‘shallowness and hypocrisy’.
He stated: “I tried to be the best version of what the Torah said, but the Haredis have created a demonic social structure in the name of Hashem and Torah to which I refused to subscribe.
“Humanity is lucky that most Jews in the world are not religious as we would not have been blessed with Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, etc.”
Elsewhere, he compared the Haredi community directly to terrorist groups Al Qaeda and Isis.
Asked about his posts, Dr Zaman said: “The posts you are referring to were made several years ago during a very personal and difficult period in my life, when I was going through an ultimately unsuccessful stage within an Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish conversion process.
“That was an emotional time, and I expressed myself in ways that, with hindsight, I would not use today.
“What matters is how I have conducted myself since. I have consistently stood against antisemitism and in support of the Jewish community and Israel.
“Through my experiences and continued engagement, I have developed a deep respect for the diversity within Jewish life and identity.
“I want to be clear: I reject antisemitism in all its forms, and I do not support or endorse language that generalises or demeans any part of the Jewish community.”
Dr Zaman describes himself as a ‘Zionist, politician, NHS, journalist’.
Manchester Reform candidate makes ‘terrorist’ Facebook post
David McCullough is standing as Reform UK’s candidate in Sharston in Manchester.
A post on Facebook from 2018 has surfaced showing a person wearing a headscarf and an unknown object strapped to their body, with the caption: ‘You think I’m a terrorist, but I identify as a firework.’
McCullough commented in the post: ‘Freedom of choice.’
The Reform candidate’s Facebook account shows his election poster for the Sharston ward as the cover image.
Manchester’s Reform branch was contacted for comment, and Mr McCullough was also approached directly on Facebook, but neither have responded.
