While Reform UK wants to present itself as a respectable party, HOPE not hate can reveal that one of its staffers has promoted extreme far-right figures and racist views on social media.
“We are going to professionalise the party,” pledged Reform UK leader Nigel Farage after last July’s general election, in which his party stood racist, anti-Muslim and antisemitic candidates. “Those few ‘bad apples’ that have crept in will be gone, will be long gone and we will never have any of their type back in our organisation. You have a 100 percent promise on that.”
Alas, since then, numerous so-called “bad apples” have been selected as Reform candidates and some have been given senior positions in the party.
Marking another blow to Farage’s promise, HOPE not hate can reveal that Reform’s recently-appointed “donor manager”, James Catton, has a shocking history of promoting extreme and racist content on social media.
Catton started working for Reform in May, according to his LinkedIn account, which details that in his role he works “closely alongside the Party’s Senior Leadership Team” to ensure they have “enough capital to deliver on our promises”.
Last month, he could be seen on Reform’s social media channels and website modelling the party’s football shirt.
In YouTube comments, Catton has said “we need to deport 10m people” and declared: “These illegals and unassimilated legals have two options: 1. Accept the one way ticket we give them back to something-istan. 2. Cannot be written in YouTube comments.”
And that’s not the worst of it. On X (formerly Twitter), Catton has shared a number of posts endorsing “remigration” (a far-right concept of ethnic cleansing, involving the deportation of migrants and/or non-white citizens) and promoted content from a variety of far-right extremists.
These are the people and groups the Reform employee appears to have taken a liking to…
Steve Laws, an ethnonationalist “influencer” from Kent, is the former South East organiser of the fascist Homeland Party — a splinter group of the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative.
On 25 April, Catton reposted Laws commenting, “Life after remigration,” in response to a video of people singing on an underground train.
Last year, Laws, whose catchphrase is “remigration is inevitable”, published a multi-stage “plan” to remove immigrants and create an ethnically homogenous Britain that combines state force with more passive forms of harassment and intimidation.
Catton has also promoted content by the extreme anti-Muslim political party Britain First, as well as its co-leaders Ashlea Simon and Paul Golding, who rose to prominence as a member of the British National Party.
In particular, Catton has shared posts by Simon 15 times this year. In one of them the Britain First co-leader claimed that “London looks more like Africa thanks to decades of mass immigration,” before demanding: “Deport them all.”
In another of the posts promoted by Reform’s donor manager, Simon claimed she isn’t “anti-African”, explaining that she’s “very pro-African, IN Africa”.
The social media content of the violent misogynist, homophobe and racist Andrew Tate, as well as his brother Tristan, has also provoked the interest of Catton, who has shared posts by both of them.
The Reform employee reposted Andrew Tate asserting, on 17 April 2024, that “misinformation” is the “truth they dont [sic] want you to know”, as well as Tristan Tate stating on 7 July 2025: “Reform aren’t perfect I know. But let’s get them in and if you want to go further right start an opposition party after they win.”
In June 2023, Andrew and Tristan Tate were charged in Romania with human trafficking, rape and setting up a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. The brothers have also been charged with rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking by UK prosecutors.
Catton hasn’t only promoted the content of Steve Laws, Britain First, and the Tate brothers.
The Reform staffer has additionally shared posts by Carl Benjamin (AKA Sargon of Akkad), a misogynistic far-right influencer who has used racist slurs and once said he “wouldn’t even rape” the Labour MP Jess Phillips; the conspiracy theorist and disgraced comedian Russell Brand, who is charged with rape and sexual assault; the far-right podcaster Beau Dade, who Reform dropped as a general election candidate after HOPE not hate revealed his extreme views; and Laurence Fox, leader of the far-right Reclaim party.
On top of all that, Catton has promoted a number of other grossly offensive posts, including some racist ones.
In May, he shared a post which declared that “White Lives Matter” above a video of a woman repeatedly calling a black person the n-word.
He also promoted a post, on 4 April, which read: “According to black people if you cause them a minor inconvenience they have the right to stab you in the heart…” Shortly afterwards, he shared a racist graphic, implying that Muslims have low IQ and that it is bad for Europe if they have children.
Other posts promoted by Catton include one on 23 March declaring that “remigration isn’t radical” and another by the ex-UKIP MP Douglas Carswell, on 6 June, responding to a post about whether the hijab, burqa, niqab and chador should be banned, by stating: “Don’t ban dresses. Remigrate those that wear them”.
Catton also reposted Carswell calling for the “mass deportation of Pakistanis” regardless of how long they have lived in Britain.
While Reform wants to portray itself as a respectable and professional party, its employment of Catton shows it still has a very long way to go.
And this is just the latest example of a Reform staffer having promoted extreme views on social media.
HOPE not hate has previously revealed that Reform’s treasurer, Charlton Edwards, has shared far-right and conspiracy theory content on X; that Reform’s (now former) director of campaigns and training, Michael Hadwen, has keenly supported Enoch Powell; and that Lee Anderson’s head of office, Ethan Thoburn, has a history as a Tommy Robinson fan.
With these people staffing the operation for Farage’s party, make no mistake: Reform is far-right.
So, does Farage think that it’s acceptable to promote extreme far-right figures and racist views online? HOPE not hate contacted Reform for comment. While Catton’s X account was deleted shortly thereafter, the party decided not to respond.
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…
