A Reform UK councillor has quit and been expelled from the party within days of being elected over claims he shared racist posts on social media.
Anyone expecting less chaos and controversy from Reform councillors following their latest round of local election successes might be sorely disappointed.
After 12 months of resignations and defections on councils, it seems Reform’s claims about their new and improved stringent vetting process were wide of the mark, as one councillor has already resigned over claims of racist social media posts.
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Stuart Prior was elected to Essex County Council at this month’s elections and also won a seat on Rochford District Council.
In the days before the elections though, he had been accused of creating racist and Islamophobic posts on social media by Hope Not Hate.
He has now been expelled from Reform UK and resigned from his position on both Essex County Council and Rochford District Council.
An Essex County Council spokesperson said: “We have had confirmation that the successful candidate for Rayleigh West has resigned from their position as a county councillor.
“We also understand they have resigned from their role as a councillor for Rochford District Council. Officers from both authorities will work together to co-ordinate by-elections, with arrangements communicated to residents as soon as possible.”
A Reform UK source said: “Stuart Prior informed us that he was resigning from his elected positions for personal reasons. We have also revoked his Reform UK membership.”
In their joint investigation with the Mirror, Hope Not Hate said Prior had described white people as “the master race” who have “larger brains”.
The organisation also claimed he had deleted an X account named @essexpriory earlier this year which had tweeted in November “Muslims are dirt” and “Muslims are awful, globally”.
Reform had said they were “looking into the posts,” which also allegedly included one in which he said genocide could not be committed against Muslims.
When approached for comment over the posts by the Mirror before the local elections, Prior had said: “That’s not what I would have put down,” and “this isn’t me.”