Reform Councillor Tom Pickup has been suspended for participating in a rather unsavoury Whatsapp group.
A Reform UK councillor has been suspended for participating in a WhatsApp group where members allegedly called for a “mass Islam genocide”.
Tom Pickup, who was elected to Lancashire county council in May, confirmed to the Guardian he was a member of the group set up by a rightwing activist.
In one exchange, one person said Keir Starmer “needs a fucking bullet”, to which another replied: “He’s a DICKtator.” Pickup responded by calling the prime minister a “dicktaker”.
In other messages, he called a government minister a “Ukrainian boy penetrator” and said he agreed with “mass deportations”.
He would also appear to have confirmed out loud the fear that a lot of people who are sympathetic to one or two Reform policies rightfully have:
He posted: “Everyone in Reform is a lot more hardline on immigration than is typically stated publicly, to get a majority government we have to be tactical.”