Six months earlier he allegedly authored social media posts<\/a> in which he celebrated a Sikh woman being raped in the Midlands, described Muslim people as \u201crats\u201d and wrote that white people were the \u201cmaster race\u201d.<\/p>\n Confronted by the Mirror over the posts ahead of the election, Mr Prior said he \u201cdid not recall\u201d the tweets, despite the journalist pointing out that pictures of the candidate\u2019s house and dog also featured in posts from the same account.<\/p>\n Regardless, he was kept on as a candidate by Reform<\/a>, winning seats on both Essex County Council and Rochford District Council last Friday. The former was a major victory for Nigel Farage\u2019s party, winning a majority in the authority to end 25 years of Conservative control.<\/p>\n Now these councils will be forced to hold by-elections to fill the vacant seats just months after the nationwide local contests, each at a cost that is set to run into the tens of thousands of pounds.<\/p>\n Mr Farage has repeatedly insisted that candidates are properly vetted, and that the party\u2019s processes are as tough as any of its rivals, but several Reform candidates were accused of making racist and offensive comments on social media in the weeks before the local elections.<\/p>\n This is not a new problem for Reform. Since May last year, 17 of the party\u2019s councillors<\/a> have vacated their seats. In 12 of these cases (70 per cent) the circumstances related to vetting or conduct issues, a lack of engagement with council duties, or basic administrative issues that were not spotted.<\/p>\n By comparison, Labour saw a similar attrition rate from its 2025 cohort, so far losing three councillors from a total of 98. However, none of them resigned over vetting issues, and one was due to death.<\/p>\n Of the 12 former Reform councillors, 11 are set to cost local taxpayers \u00a3287,000 in by-election costs, figures obtained by The Independent through Freedom of Information requests indicate, as the mounting cost of Reform\u2019s inadequate or unprepared candidates is revealed.<\/p>\n The two by-elections triggered by Mr Prior\u2019s resignation are set to cost a further \u00a335,000, estimates provided by Rochford council show, pushing the total figure up to \u00a3322,000. Unlike at a general election, which is funded by central government, local election costs are paid for by the authority in which they are held.<\/p>\n Responding to The Independent\u2019s analysis, Reform argued that the figure is \u201cmisleading\u201d, pointing to an estimated \u00a31.3m in combined costs arising from by-elections triggered by the resignations of Labour and Conservative councillors over the same time period. Following the May 2025 elections, the two parties had a combined 10,527 councillors, and Reform 804.<\/p>\n The party\u2019s first resignation after the 2025 local elections was Andrew Kilburn, who left Durham Council after just nine days when it emerged he was an employee of the local authority and therefore was ineligible to stand.<\/p>\n Staffordshire County Council\u2019s Wayne Titley resigned just two weeks after being elected, following criticism of Facebook posts published before the election, where he advocated for small boats attempting to reach Britain to be sunk with a \u201cvolley of gunfire\u201d.<\/p>\n Similarly, Lynn Dean stood down from Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council in April after being suspended from Reform for allegedly publishing racist posts on X. Her vacated seat was already scheduled to be contested on 7 May as part of the wider local elections, and she remains an independent councillor on Staffordshire County Council.<\/p>\n Barry Martin, also of Staffordshire council, is the latest of the 2025 intake to go, resigning earlier this week. The former councillor had two formal complaints against him relating to his social media<\/a> activity upheld by the authority last year, allegedly writing shortly after his election that the role was \u201cso dull and boring\u201d and that he was \u201cthinking of resigning\u201d. Reform council leader Martin Murray said that Mr Martin resigned for health reasons and a family bereavement.<\/p>\n Other cases include:<\/p>\n Robert Bloom, North Northamptonshire \u2013 who resigned in August after being charged in October with two counts of racially or religiously aggravated harassmentDavid Cumming, Durham \u2013 who resigned in January following a period of extremely low attendance (20 per cent)Adam Smith, West Northamptonshire \u2013 who was expelled from the party in August for bringing it into \u201cdisrepute\u201d, resigned in March<\/p>\n![\"Newly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/01KR2R4HNW948N0ZB0WM1XMKMW.jpg\")
Newly elected Reform councillors celebrate during the 2026 Essex County Council election at Clacton Leisure Centre (PA)<\/p>\n![\"Mr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2183834104.jpg\")
Mr Farage has repeatedly insisted that Reform candidates are properly vetted (Getty)<\/p>\n
![\"Nigel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/01KR4KJG84G5Y069SACDS2SH8C.jpg\")
Nigel Farage has said that Reform candidates are \u2018held to a higher standard than any of the other parties\u2019 (PA)<\/p>\n