Today sees a local by-election being held in Basildon. A Reform candidate is standing – Sam Journet.
His statement includes the claim that he believes in “plain speaking” and “standing up for the people”, Well, based on his purported social media posts the former might be true, but the latter most certainly isn’t – at least if you’re not the type of person he prefers.
The Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo reports on some of Journet’s past Facebook posts. They are rough.
Screenshots of the posts – from an account in the name Samuel John Journet – were shared on X (formerly Twitter) by an account devoted to exposing misconduct by Reform candidates.
Here’s an example of the writings of wannabe-councillor Journey:
I can walk perfectly thanks, shame you can’t though, because your all monkeyfied, you swing from trees
He finds the death of British soldiers hilarious:
Another British soldier has been killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. That’ll teach him for playing on hardcore…. LOOOOOOOOOOOL!
Some other choice snippets as reported in the Echo:
In the posts, all from around 15 years ago, the account in Mr Journet’s name refers to someone as a “retard” and asks whether they “bend for the soap”.
Posts also call the person a “little monkey” and “monkey” alongside abusive swear words.
I can see why the site didn’t want to report the one full post referring to a monkey. Here’s a censored version of it:
f*** off you monkey piece of s***
go f*** your f******* sister you incest f******* child.******
And a picture of the original, uncensored, via ReformExposed
And one that includes a particularly specific threat of violence:
If you want to give it, then bring it to my door and I will slice you into four and serve it to my dog
The Echo approached both Reform’s national press office as well as their local organisers. They didn’t bother replying.
Members of opposition parties quite rightly are appalled that this is the man that Reform want to represent the area. Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty served in the same unit as the solider who was killed that Journet found so hilarious and wants Reform to withdraw their support. The local Labour organisation also believes that post to be “disgraceful”. I’m sure many other non-politicians agree.
Journet’s Facebook account has since been deactivated, hiding the evidence. But not before it was shared widely by others on social media, hopefully giving today’s voters a sense of the person they will be putting into a position of power if they vote Reform in today’s Basildon election.
Sure, these posts were from many years ago, and perhaps he’s changed his views – but the lack of response from him or his party might suggest that’s not the case, or they simply don’t care. It also makes Reform’s concern that their candidate vetting process is somehow too strict at present seem like the laughable claim it obviously is.