Even as attention is focussed on the appalling crop of candidates that Reform UK has put forward for this year’s local elections, here at HOPE not hate we’re still discovering disastrous councillors from the intake of 2025.
Meet James Grainger, Reform UK councillor for Okehampton Rural division on Devon County Council.
Grainger is somewhat outspoken on his public Facebook profile, including stating that the Gorton & Denton by-election was “perfect example of foreign cultures infiltrating our politics” and condemning the Green Party for supporting “foreigners keeping the vote in the UK”
But he reserves his more extreme commentary for his anonymous YouTube channel, where he comments on videos under the pseudonym “ILikeLampshades6”.
“I’d rather share my neighbourhood with armed Russians”
Unusually for a Royal Navy veteran and elected official, one of Grainger’s regular themes is his preference for the rule of Vladimir Putin over our own elected governments.
Slightly more common – though perhaps equally troubling for Reform UK – is his preference to fight for Rupert Lowe and/or Ben Habib.
Grainger has toyed with the idea of running for MP under Reform’s banner and then promptly defecting to Ben Habib’s Advance UK, saying that Reform was “turning into the exact thing I’ve campaigned against”
However, a more recent post suggests that the “overwhelming majority of reform voters, members and cllrs” might have been swayed by the appeal of Lowe’s Restore UK.
“im tempted to switch to Advance UK […] Why would I support Reform thats turning into the exact thing Ive campaigned against.”
Grainger’s antipathy to his own party might be partly fuelled by his ingrained Islamophobia. He welcomed the short-lived resignation of then-Reform Chair Zia Yusuf in June 2025 by suggesting that Yusuf’s “loyalty to Islam” would hold the party back.
“So happy to see Zia gone. He was a muslim and definitely against the values and direction of reform”
If Grainger succeeds in his mission to win a Parliamentary seat, he has some disturbing policy proposals that he’d like to see enacted, including the deportation of up to 10 million people and a bizarre new voting system that grants multiple votes to individuals based on their ancestry.
A running theme in Grainger’s commentary – besides Islamophobia – is contempt for the British public. He’d rather fight for Vladimir Putin than our elected government; he wants Reform to “win power and then turn against Islam”; he likes the idea of seeking votes as a Reform MP and then promptly defecting to another party.
He shared none of this with the electorate of Okehampton Rural before the election, and they deserve far, far better than this.
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…
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