Reform UK councillor suspended after vile WhatsApp messages exposed

Reform UK councillor Tom Pickup has been suspended from Nigel Farage’s party after a member of a WhatsApp group allegedly called for a “mass Islam genocide” — dire language in every sense. Tom Pickup, a leading Reform councillor in Lancashire, is now under investigation.

The far-right WhatsApp group also included a message inciting violence against Keir Starmer, saying that he “needs a f*cking bullet” and another calling him a “DICKtator” — to which Pickup replied by referring to Starmer as a “dicktaker” as well. In other comments, he supported mass deportations and allegedly called a government minister a “Ukrainian boy penetrator.”

Reform UK—Tactical

Pickup also suggested that Reform is being ‘tactical’ about its real racist beliefs in order to win power, saying that:

Everyone in Reform is a lot more hardline on immigration than is typically stated publicly. To get a majority government we have to be tactical.

After the WhatsApp messages came out, Pickup said he had “been my usual jokey self, and it’s been twisted out of context” and that he was unaware of extreme posts in the group calling for weapons to be stockpiled for use against “migrants” and the “mass Islam genocide” message. He also claimed to have “done a lot of community engagement work with the Islamic community” and that he would have condemned and reported the comments if he had seen them.

Given Reform’s record of MPs and candidates caught making racist and homophobic comments — and the alleged record of party leader Nigel Farage — readers might be forgiven for thinking that the WhatsApp messages would be considered grounds for promotion rather than suspension.

But perhaps, you know, ‘tactical’ until power and all that.

Featured image via the Canary