‘Washing clothes is a woman’s job,’ says Reform councillor

Harry Shukman and Sarah Hadley

The leaders of Reform UK insist that they have the best vetting of any political party, so how did Alex Clarke slip through the net?

The newly-elected South Tyneside councillor has made sexist comments that HOPE not hate found very easily by listening to the podcast that he runs under his own name.

On Clarke Out Loud, the name of his show, Clarke promises to “deliver unfiltered, controversial opinions that absolutely no one has asked for”. 

Among his opinions are “washing clothes is a woman’s job” and “it’s scientifically proven that men are better drivers than women”.

Clarke said: “When you’re going down a road and [a driver] is trying to parallel park a tiny little car in a big fuck-off space, you don’t even have to see who’s driving it. It’s a woman.”

His comments will be an embarrassment for the party, which has been struggling with accusations of sexism. Reform’s candidate for the Makerfield by-election, Rob Kenyon, said: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am. Women can’t ref, drive or give directions.” Kenyon refused to apologise after our discovery that he joked about performing a sexually explicit act on the broadcaster Carol Vorderman.

Alex Clarke, who represents the Harton ward in South Tyneside, has furthermore said that Keir Starmer is a paedophile and keeps children in his house. “I guarantee you Keir Starmer’s got a few in his basement,” he said. “Keir Starmer is a nonce. I’m guaranteeing he’s a nonce, and you can’t do me for that. It’s not slander if it’s factual.”

In another episode, Clarke said of the prime minister: “You know, he gets pegged, he definitely gets pegged and whilst he’s doing it, he’s probably got a young boy in front of him.”

On discovering that Starmer’s wife is Jewish, he abruptly ended a podcast recording. This is an exchange between Clarke and his partner Abbie from a recent episode:

Abbie: They’re Jewish.

Alex: Oh fuck me. We ain’t got time to go into that.

Abbie: They’re Jewish.

Alex: Jesus Christ.

Abbie: Well, his wife’s Jewish, don’t know about him.

Alex: Fucking hell. He definitely ain’t Jewish. He.. Ohhhh. Babe, we need to end this podcast.

Abbie: Did I just open a can of worms?

Alex: You’ve opened a whole can of worms and it’s made me need a shit.

Abbie: Oh God.

Alex: You need to end this podcast right now because otherwise I’m about to get deleted.

In the podcast released last week, Clarke referred to Djed Spence, the black Tottenham Hotspur player, as “a dirty yid”. Although the term “yid” has been used by Spurs fans to describe themselves, the club has called for the term to be phased out due to its history as an antisemitic slur.

Elsewhere, Clarke called Birmingham “a third-world shithole” and repeated the 15-minute cities conspiracy theory that shadowy elites are trying to “entrap” citizens into areas. “You’ll see soon enough,” he said.

His podcast also features rants about daily life. Occasionally, they will talk about their favourite films and TV programmes. Clarke’s take on the series finale of Stranger Things was: “Basically Will coming out as a faggot.”

When we approached Clarke for comment, he gave us a response that, after all the Reform politicians we have written about, we had never heard. Clarke denied that he was a councillor. This is strange given that South Tyneside Council still lists his profile page, featuring his official phone number, email address and five committee appointments. We spoke to a council staffer who told us that they had not received Clarke’s resignation and would immediately amend his page when told. Clarke insisted that he had in fact resigned and had not received his councillor’s allowance. We asked him when he handed in his resignation, but he declined to say. “i have never been good with dates,” he said. The elections took place on May 7th.

A representative of Reform did not answer a request for comment. If Clarke had indeed resigned, would the party not want to disavow him?

Whatever his councillor status, Clarke made nearly all of these podcast comments while in Reform.

As to the comments themselves, Clarke initially offered this explanation: “There are things in this world called jokes! The definition of a joke is that it is said without intent to cause harm or distress and is strictly meant for comedic purpise and nothibg more [sic].”

He later emailed us a more detailed response in which he strenuously denied that he was sexist or antisemitic, adding that his remarks had been taken out of context. He also denied that he had called the prime minister a paedophile, saying it was “a comedic exaggeration” and “not a literal accusation”.

Clarke said: “The podcast uses irony, satire, and over‑the‑top humour to highlight the ridiculousness of public discourse, not to attack individuals or communities. None of these comments were made with malice or genuine belief behind them.”

He added: “If anything I’ve said has caused offence due to my lack of phrasing or delivery, that was never my intention, and I apologise for any misunderstanding. I am taking on board how certain comments may look when isolated from their comedic context, and I am committed to being more mindful of that going forward.”