The group was the subject of a year-long investigation by BBC News, which uncovered its members extreme views regarding migration, including one who reportedly said of immigrants who refused deportation: “The only way to get rid of them will be to kill every single one of them.”
One post reshared by Plater claimed that Britain is living under a “multicultural and anti-White tyranny,” according to Hope Not Hate.
And Guy Aston, another Reform candidate, has liked a post blaming Jewish banking families – the Rothschilds, Warburgs and Baruchs – for “funding Kalergi’s genocidal ideology.”
The so-called “Kalergi Plan” is a conspiracy theory that claims white Europeans are being deliberately replaced as part of a hidden agenda to “make unique races and cultures extinct”. Aston subsequently told the JC that the theory was “bunkem”.
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Likewise, Howard Rimmer, standing in the Roman Ridge ward, has repeatedly shared material from the Traditional Britain Group (TBG), another far-right organisation.
In one of the posts reshared by Rimmer, the group claimed: “We are importing low IQ people and when they commit heinous crimes they are given more lenient sentences by the Judges [sic].”
The discovery of the posts, some of which were shared before the men in question were named as candidates, presents a new challenge to Reform over its selection procedures.
Reform had pledged to strengthen its vetting after a number of scandals around last year’s general election, the JC’s revelation that the party’s Bexhill and Battle parliamentary candidate, Ian Gribbin, had argued that the UK should have remained neutral in the Second World War.
Writing online in 2022, Gribbin said Britain would be "far better" if it had "taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality" instead of fighting the Nazis.
After the fallout, Nigel Farage insisted all candidates for local elections in 2025 would be assessed thoroughly.
Speaking at a press conference Dover on Thursday, he said the party had developed "a vetting system that was as good if not better than the other parties" for this year's elections.
He added: "Hundreds of people who applied to be candidates for the county council elections were rejected... often because of repeated use of words beginning with F and C on social media."
Others had been rejected "because they just said things that were just ridiculous, outrageous, embarrassing,” according to Farage.
But Hope Note Hate say their investigation into candidates undermines Farage’s vetting claims. Last Thursday, the anti-racism campaign group published details of social media posts from 14 different Reform UK candidates, including Broadhurst, Plater, Aston and Rimmer, containing varying degrees of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Georgie Laming, director of campaigns at Hope Not Hate, said, “Farage claimed that Reform UK has better vetting than the other parties. But we’ve uncovered candidates who have posted hate, pushed far-right conspiracies, and praised extremists. These aren’t isolated cases.”
Responding to the JC’s request, Aston said that liking a post about the Kalergi Plan “has nothing to do with Zionism” and accused Hope Not Hate of “trying to spice it up.” He said, “I am a strong advocate for Israel.”
Broadhurst, Plater, Rimmer and Reform UK were approached for comment.
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