A month on from the local elections, Reform UK has already been forced to issue a series of apologies and suspensions over the past comments of a number of newly elected councillors. As a result, questions have been raised about the nature – and effectiveness – of the vetting process.
It’s not unusual for councillors to say things that get them into trouble, or make remarks that will, intentionally or not, generate headlines.
But when those remarks have been posted on social media months or even years earlier, why are they not being picked up sooner?
It’s not a just a problem for Reform; Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have all had their own issues.
But after the party’s huge successes across Yorkshire, some of their councillors – and council leaders – have been called out on their previous social media posts, and questions are being asked about how they slipped through the vetting net.
Even before the election, the party was being urged to take action over some of those standing.
In Sheffield, The Times highlighted a series of tweets by Nathaniel Menday, including images of swastikas and Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Menday told the newspaper he had flirted with “far right ideology”, external but had come to reject it.
When Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice was asked about the posts by The Yorkshire Post, he defended Menday and said: “We’re all human”, external.