Exclusive: Four members of the Sheffield East Reform UK branch have been permanently expelled from the party
Four members of the Sheffield East Reform UK branch have been permanently expelled from the party(Image: )
A branch of Reform UK in Sheffield has been “left in tatters” after a role-play session dramatising a “homosexual couple attending a councillor’s surgery” in the interview process for potential candidates “crossed a line”.
Four members of Reform UK have been permanently expelled from the party after it was claimed that a man “kissed the head of and sat on the lap of a prospective male councillor candidate” for the upcoming local Sheffield elections in May. An emergency disciplinary hearing deemed this inappropriate.
However, three of the men expelled claim the disciplinary action has been a sham. They told YorkshireLive Reform UK repeatedly failed to “abide by its own constitution” during the process, however, the party itself says it followed the disciplinary process “to a tee”.
The former members suggest that expelling them without even one conversation has “left the Reform presence in Sheffield in tatters,” as numerous members and prospective candidates have withdrawn their support for the party.
The interview was organised by the Sheffield East Reform UK branch, the leading campaigning group for the right-wing party in Sheffield. It took place in a cafe on City Road on November 10. In the room were five interview panel members, three “independent witnesses” who helped design some of the scenarios, the two role players, and the candidate.
During the interview, the role players were asked to pretend to be a “gay couple”. They were given creative licence to amp up the role in an attempt to put the candidate under pressure.
It had been claimed that this led to one man kissing the interview candidate on the head and sitting on his lap. A complaint was made to Reform UK, and after a disciplinary process, four members were permanently expelled. Another two men were initially suspended but avoided being expelled from the party altogether.
However, a video of the interview – seen by YorkshireLive – shows one of the role players side-hugging the candidate. He is encouraged by one of the witnesses to “amp up” his acting and put the candidate under pressure, but at no stage in the video does he kiss the candidate’s head or sit on his lap.
Three of those expelled have expressed serious concerns about the disciplinary process, including video evidence that what was claimed to have happened did not occur.
The six people were informed of their suspension from the party on November 21. Reform had used emergency powers to enact the suspensions, but the notice came from Reform General Secretary Tom Waterhouse, not Party Chairperson David Bull. The party’s constitution says it should come from the Party Chairperson.
The email, seen by YorkshireLive, informing members of their suspension incorrectly stated the incident date as November 13. It also claimed the members were “part of this interview panel”, though this was only true for three out of the six suspended.
The interview was video recorded, which Reform said breached rule 6.22 of the party’s Branch Rules. Those expelled from the party claim the rule prohibits video recording of branch meetings, which this interview was not. They also claim that the emergency powers were not necessary, as further interviews were conducted on November 20, the day before the notice of suspension was issued.
Reform conducted an emergency disciplinary hearing on December 5. It permanently expelled four men as members, suspended one man for six months and prohibited him from holding a branch position, and found no further action against a sixth man.
The hearing found the conduct at the interview did not “respect professional boundaries and safeguard candidates from embarrassment or coercion”. It said it took into account the members’ “persistent refusal to accept that there was anything to report” and their “framing of the disciplinary process as unfair, rather than engaging with the standards expected”.
It concluded: “Taken together, this leaves the Committee with little confidence that [the expelled members] would act differently if faced with a similar situation in future. Balancing all factors, the Committee concludes that [the members’] conduct and, in particular, their continued refusal to acknowledge that the exercise crossed a line, make them unsuitable to hold responsibilities involving candidate assessment or supervision.”
The expelled members claimed the content of the complaint had been changed. The suspension notice said a man kissed a candidate “on the top of his head”. When the emergency disciplinary panel decision was issued, Reform claimed it was an “air kiss to the top of the candidate’s head”. The suspension notice claimed a man “encouraged to sit on the candidate applicant’s knee”, but this was later changed to “move into the personal space of a candidate”.
They also claimed they were not allowed to appeal the decision, which they said was unfair. Before the hearing, they had only been suspended, not expelled. They said: “It is difficult to see how an appeal could properly be said to have been heard against a decision that had not yet been made. This raises a fundamental ambiguity as to whether the proceedings conducted on December 5 were an appeal or a first-instance disciplinary hearing.” Reform UK said the members’ appeal was heard and determined by the emergency disciplinary hearing on December 5.
The members have since joined another political party and will campaign during the upcoming local elections in May.
A spokesperson for Reform UK said the party does not comment on internal matters but insisted the disciplinary process was followed “to a tee”.
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