Reform UK candidate probed over Facebook posts

Reform UK says it is investigating social media posts made by one of its candidates standing in next month's local elections in East Sussex.

Ricky Hodges, who runs Sentry Scaffolding and is a former Coldstream guard, is vying to become a councillor in the Tressell ward on Hastings Borough Council on 7 May.

In Facebook posts over a period of years, Hodges claimed Muslims "milk our benefits system" to fund mosques, called for the Mayor of London to be "put into a coma", and said he would punch a "squirming little leftie" in the throat.

Reform UK's leader, Nigel Farage, told BBC South East his party would "investigate" the comments but would not confirm what action could be taken against Hodges.

Last year, on the 20th anniversary of the London 7/7 bombings, Hodges posted images of a bus destroyed in the attacks alongside Southport killer Axel Rudakubana.

An excerpt from the post reads: "We have an open border with 1000s of Islamic extremists coming in unchallenged!

"We have seen sexual crimes go up 200% in the last ten years alone! Majority of crimes, especially rapes, are committed by foreign nationals from Muslim countries."

Rudakubana murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, on 29 July 2024.

False rumours circulated at the time that Rudakubana was a Muslim who had come to the UK by crossing the English Channel in a small boat. In reality, he was born in Cardiff in 2006 to Rwandan parents who were Christian.

In 2020, Hodges urged veterans attending an event in London to put the city's mayor, Sadiq Khan, "in a coma for a long time".

The year before, he said he wanted to shoot an "arrogant little ISIS" member "in the face", and that he would "love to come up against" a group of Labour activists to "take their... limbs off".

The same year, Hodges said in response to an article discussing former prime minister Theresa May's handling of Brexit: "She needs to be hung".

In an instance in 2010, he said: "Funny how hurricanes are named after women. Maybe coz they destroy everything?".

Hodges requested to see the screenshots the BBC had taken of his Facebook posts before commenting.

After the images were sent, he responded by quoting footballer Eric Cantona, who said in 1995: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."

When asked if he had anything to say to people who might have been offended by his comments, he told the BBC offence was taken and not given.

During a visit to Crowborough on Wednesday, Farage insisted his party had tightened its vetting processes.

When asked if he would remove Hodges as a candidate, Farage said: "If what you say is true, we will act. In time, I will go through a process and I will act. I always have.

"Have a look at the number of people the Conservative party have had to get rid off and you will see our problems are as nothing."

Hodges previously stood for Hastings Borough Council in the Ashdown & Conquest by-election.

In an interview ahead of the by-election, he said: "What really swayed my decision to really get involved In politics, at that time, then, I really started to see the rise in this leftist, sort of crazy, intolerant, ideology sort of creeping up."

Candidates for the Tressell ward in the upcoming election are:

• Ingrid Kristina Kathleen Allan (Labour)
• Glenn Haffenden (Green Party)
• Ricky Hodges (Reform)
• Shelley Lee (Conservatives)

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