In the last few weeks, Reform UK has been hit with a string of scandals over the far-right, racist and otherwise outlandish views of its candidates for the local elections on 7 May.
The picture is no different in Lancashire, where HOPE not hate has found that Reform candidates for Blackburn with Darwen Council have said Oswald Mosley “was right”, called Enoch Powell “prophetic”, and said Blackburn is “the biggest shithole in the UK”.
Here are some of the people Reform have put up for election:
Andrew Mahon, standing for Reform in the Blackburn South East ward, is a fan of Oswald Mosley, who founded and led the British Union of Fascists from 1932 to 1940. On 9 December 2024, he posted on Facebook that Mosley “was right”, adding that “we need an educational correction” and “multiculturalism has failed”.
Mosley’s BUF was a virulently antisemitic movement and in 1936 Adolf Hitler was a guest of honour at his second wedding, held in secret in Nazi Germany. Mosley was imprisoned in 1940, following the outbreak of the Second World War, after which he became a leading voice in Holocaust denial.
On 20 August 2025, Mahon also wrote that Enoch Powell – the politician most well-known for his racist, inflammatory and demagogic ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech – “was 100% correct, the only things that he did not know about or could foresee is Muslim terrorists blowing up Arenas in the U.K.”
Additionally, Mahon has said that “Islam has no place in Western democratic Countries” and that he’s “not interested in anything Muslims believe in or have to say”. One video shared by Mahon on Facebook was titled, “Inside the Islamic Takeover of London,” and featured the anti-Muslim extremist Tommy Robinson claiming that “Muslims will use democracy to end democracy,” while another, by an American politician, was captioned: “The United States Congress should ban Islam. Islam is not a religion. The goal of Islam is to overthrow our constitution.”
Janine Crook is another Enoch Powell fan standing for Reform. On 12 March, she termed the former politician “prophetic”.
She has said Blackburn is “the biggest shithole in the UK”; responded to a post by Sam Melia – a leading member of the fascist group Patriotic Alternative, who spent two years behind bars after being found guilty of race hate offences – announcing his return to X, by commenting “Welcome back x”; and declared that “Lee Anderson is saying what many moderate people think but dare not say” when the MP claimed that “Islamists” have “got control of London” and Sadiq Khan.
Tommy Temperley is a conspiracy theorist, who believes that the World Economic Forum (WEF), a common target for conspiratorial cranks, is “orchestrating” international and domestic politics and has criticised “the globalist traitors in Westminster” for being “obsessed with funding” Ukraine’s military as it fights Russia.
On Facebook, he has claimed that Labour follows “the orders given to them by the WEF” and said Keir Starmer “appears as nothing more than a puppet, doing the bidding of globalists” in a post which criticised the prime minister for wanting “to send British soldiers to defend Ukraine’s borders against the Russians.”
Temperley has also said that the Ukraine-Russia war is “not about good guys and bad guys” as “the truth is, both sides are driven by a need for control and power”. In a particularly bizarre post in February 2025, he claimed that if the government sends the British army to Ukraine it will be “when the migrants take control of [the] UK”.
Last year, Reform announced that in future its candidates would be selected through a less stringent “common sense” vetting procedure. It’s not going well.
We’re lifting the lid on the people and money behind Reform UK, and this is just the start. Reform Watch is a new newsletter from HOPE not hate, sent straight to supporters who want to know the truth about the party. Sign up now to get the next edition.
Prefer to listen? Click the play button to hear the audio version. Harry Shukman Reform UK is staffed by oddballs and enigmas, but none odder…
