Reform has refused to expel a senior councillor who approved of a call to kill a Labour MP.
Cllr Simon Evans, who Reform have made cabinet member for children and families on Lancashire Council, liked a post on Facebook saying Labour MP Natalie Fleet “should be shot”.
The post liked by Cllr Evans referred to the grooming gang inquiry and said of Ms Fleet, the Labour MP for Bolsover: “You dozy cow…you should be shot.”
Cllr Evans has apologised and said he did not realise the full content of the post, adding: “I would never intentionally call for or wish violence upon anyone.”
Alex Davies-Jones MP, Labour’s minister for victims and tackling violence against women and girls, said: “This grotesque and misogynistic call to violence has absolutely no room in society.
“Yet Nigel Farage continues to insult the public by tolerating these extremist views in Reform. It’s completely unacceptable.
“Farage should grow a backbone and immediately suspend his councillor for this vile and dangerous threat.”
Ms Fleet responded: “Posts like this are so common I don’t bat an eyelid. But they remind me why my husband & kids *begged* me not to stand.
“I felt huge responsibility; last lab gov helped me, I wanted to help others. But…we should be able to fight for our areas w/o death threats as standard.”
It came on the same day Mr Farage claimed at a press conference in Dover that he had personally “done more to tackle the far right than any other politician”.
In a statement, Reform said: “We investigated the post and consider it to be an honest mistake. We accept Cllr Evans' apology and version of events.”
Cllr Evans said that grooming gangs was an issue he had been campaigning on for many years.
He added: “Unfortunately, what I did not notice was the accompanying text of the Facebook post that was created by an unknown user. As soon as this was pointed out I immediately deleted the post. I would never intentionally call for, or wish, violence upon anyone, regardless of their political beliefs. This sort of rhetoric has absolutely no place in our politics.
“I would like to sincerely apologise to Ms Fleet and anyone else for the offence caused.”
Reform also resisted deselecting their candidate for Mayor of Hampshire, Chris Parry, a former rear admiral, who suggested that deputy prime minister David Lammy should “go home” to live in Jamaica where his “loyalties lie”.
In an additional tweet, Mr Parry also described the dead rightwing former Tory politician Enoch Powell as “unfulfilled”.
In a separate tweet Mr Parry also attacked Sir Lenny Henry in a similar way when the comedian and actor supported calls for the UK to pay £19 trillion in slavery reparations.
Mr Parry posted: “Where does his primary loyalty lie?”
Another tweet in March saw Mr Parry describe Birmingham as “a failed colony”.
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