Reform urged to ‘publish the proofs’ following by-election letter scandal

As we reported yesterday, the police are investigating Reform UK. Their alleged crime is sending out a letter to the residents of Gorton & Denton which wasn’t marked with the party’s logo. A spokesperson for the party blamed a printing error, but people aren’t buying it.

Now, a Tory councillor has pointed out there’s a very simple way for Reform to quickly salvage their reputation:

Publish the print-ready proofs. https://t.co/603ATAWoqg

— Cllr. Matt Cowley (@matcow7) February 7, 2026

Reform — Lettergate

Reform UK blamed the absent logo on a printing error, with the printers themselves taking responsibility.

As people have highlighted, this exact same thing has happened to Reform before:

Reform have not made a "mistake" in Gorton and Denton as they did EXACTLY the same thing in Caerphilly last year. pic.twitter.com/IHISoAM9x0

— Socialist Opera Singer (@OperaSocialist) February 7, 2026

People also had a hard time believing the ‘printing error’ line:

The Reform UK @GoodwinMJ campaign and printer is blaming a “trimming error” for the imprint not being on the letter.

Bearing in mind the letter is A4, what exactly was trimmed.

And why would you print on A4 and trim it? The images show it clearly wasn’t trimmed.

The lie is… pic.twitter.com/EJ7q8O118h

— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) February 6, 2026

If Reform UK are telling the truth, then the ‘proof’ file that the party sent to the printers should contain their branding. They should also have an email or file receipt which proves they sent it when they said they did.

As people have pointed out, though, a printing error wouldn’t necessarily excuse Reform in a legal sense:

This defence doesn’t wash.

Under election law, responsibility for imprints sits with the promoter/agent, not the printer. Campaigns have a non-delegable duty to ensure material as distributed is lawful.

“Printer error” is mitigation at best not a defence especially where party… https://t.co/vH3BwIM5Is

— Liz Webster (@LizWebsterSBF) February 7, 2026

This wasn’t the only scandalous happening, either. As activist Nicholas Wilson pointed out, the BBC completely ignored Reform’s bother with the bizzies:

It's not just concerning that BBC haven't reported Reform election crime – it's sinister.

— Mr Ethical 🚩 (@nw_nicholas) February 7, 2026

The BBC would later give the story some attention, albeit significantly less than other outlets:

Is that it? No article, and just a short bulletin with no images of the letter itself which was designed to obviously mislead people? https://t.co/UcWxp1h1U2

— Curtis Daly (@CurtisDaly_) February 7, 2026

Far right tactics

As it turns out, this ‘granny letter’ tactic originated with the far-right British National Party (BNP):

Straight from the horse’s mouth. The “granny letter” is an old BNP tactic. Eddy Butler was the BNP’s (self – declared) “election supremo”. pic.twitter.com/LQ2ovFXcpv

— Matthew Collins (@MattHopeNotHate) February 7, 2026

Here’s what Butler said in full:

I found this story interesting for two reasons.

Firstly Reform seem to be employing the ‘Granny Letter’ tactic that I pioneered in the BNP way over 20 years ago. A leaflet designed to look like a personal handwritten letter to the voters. I always regarded it as one of the most effective pieces of propaganda in our toolbox, complete with little blue envelopes of the type your Granny would use to send a Postal Order to you on your birthday.

Secondly, they made the schoolboy error of failing to include the ‘printed and promoted by’ imprint on the letter. I remember in the run up to the 2009 European election the BNP printed hundreds of thousands of warm up leaflets with no imprint. They were light blue I recall. There was a squabble between the designer, Mark Collett (who he?) and [Nick] Griffin over who was responsible. Mark Collett had to be censured as he had openly said to someone a disparaging remark, about letting the stupid branches pay for his mistake. And as happens in politics this remark became widely known. The leaflets had to be binned although I think some were used with an address stuck across the bottom.

Accountability

Will Reform face any actual consequences for breaking the law if they’re found guilty?

Probably not.

And we can’t see the country becoming more fair should they take power.

It really is one set of laws for us and fuck all for them.

Featured image via postdlf