Five officers claimed to have resigned from Reform UK in Kirklees
(Image: Christopher Furlong, Getty Images)
Reform UK has hit back after five officers from branches across Kirklees claimed to have resigned from the party.
A Facebook page dedicated to Reform branches in Ossett & Denbury Dale and Dewsbury & Batley announced that all five officers in the areas resigned on Thursday, February 19. In a statement, the group said: “All five officers resign today. We don’t put up with bullying, racism or being told to remove our already placed candidates to be replaced by Tory defectors from regional directors or anyone else.”
When YorkshireLive put the claim to the Reform UK national party, a spokesperson said it was “total nonsense”. A spokesperson added: “No complaints of bullying or racism have been submitted by these former officers, nor have any candidates been replaced by defectors in the areas covered by the Ossett & Denby Dale and Dewsbury & Batley branches.”
YorkshireLive has contacted the Facebook page for further information.
This is not the first time a Yorkshire-based Reform branch has seemingly broken down. Late last year, YorkshireLive revealed several members of the Sheffield South East branch had been expelled from the party after they conducted a gay role play in a councillor candidate interview. Three of those expelled slammed the disciplinary process as a sham.
Reform UK came third in the Ossett & Denbury Dale and Dewsbury & Batley elections in 2024. However, the party gained 15.9 per cent and 12.8 per cent of the vote share respectively. Labour’s Jade Botterill is the MP in the former, while Iqbal Mohamed became the first independent to win a seat in Yorkshire since 1907.
Get all the latest and breaking Sheffield news straight to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter here.
Did you know you can make Yorkshire Live a preferred source of Yorkshire news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here
