Shambolic Reform loses first councillor soon as elected — never wanted to stand

Reform UK may have had a good day in the 2026 local elections this week, but it’s just as shambolic and racist as ever. The ‘party’, which is in fact a limited company, has already lost at least one new councillor — even before polling day.

Daniel Devaney was the party’s candidate for Clayton and Fairweather Green ward in Bradford. Before the election, he said he was stepping down, wasn’t “really bothered” and was going on holiday. He was upset about public outrage over social media posts.

Among the comments identified on his Facebook profile was a comment that he wanted to “blast [Muslims] off the face of the earth”. He claimed to have written it because he was in a bad mood. He also supported Israel’s eradication of Palestinians:

the Muslims are innocent my arse. Isreal [sic] is fighting on 3 fronts. If I was them I’d just blast them all of the face of the earth. Pure scum.

Reform’s Enoch Powell

In another Facebook spew, he posted a video of Enoch Powell complaining about immigrants subjugating white people:

there will be the whip hand over the white man held by the immigrant.

Devaney commented, “Never a more truer [sic] word said”. He then demanded “riots and marches” to remove “Starmer and his Muslim and anti-British party”.

Devaney later told local press that his genocidal comment had been “wrong and said while I was in a bad mood and watching TV”. His call for riots had been “well out of order”, he added.

Reform didn’t deselect or suspend him. It didn’t even remove him after he said he didn’t want to stand any more. And clearly such racist poison doesn’t put Reform voters off, as the now-paper candidate got elected.

Presumably his resignation email is winging its way to Bradford council from wherever he’s gone on his hols.

This is not Reform’s first time at the ‘paper candidate’ races — even candidates that don’t exist. In the 2024 general election it fielded non-existent candidates that split the hard-right Tory vote and let Starmer win. The full number of such candidates was never confirmed and the state took no action afterward. However, the number of seats that ‘Labour’ won as a result of Reform taking second place and splitting the Tory vote was greater than Starmer’s Commons majority.

Featured image via the Canary