Reform UK expel Gateshead council candidate over BNP past

Nigel Farage’s party has withdrawn its support for David Robert Prior, who is standing in the Saltwell ward, in Gateshead, at the upcoming local elections.

Mr Prior, whose expulsion was first reported by Jewish News, will still appear on ballot papers at the election on May 7.

His name reportedly appeared in a list of members of the far-right BNP that was previously published by WikiLeaks, a copy of which has been seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The news comes just days after Mr Farage was in the North East, during which he addressed party members at an event in Sunniside following visits to high streets in Gateshead and South Shields.

When approached for comment by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Prior said: “It was 20 years ago and I am not that person any more, I am devastated to tell you the truth. I’m just devastated that something that happened 20 years ago…I don’t know what to say.” 

A Reform UK spokesperson said : “Mr Prior has been expelled from Reform UK after failing to declare his former membership of a proscribed organisation. Reform UK has withdrawn our support for his candidacy.”

Reform UK later clarified to the BBC it has proscribed the BNP itself on a list of organisations of which past or present membership is “incompatible” with membership of the party. 

The BNP is not a proscribed organisation or banned under UK law.

Mark Ferguson, the Labour MP for Gateshead Central and Whickham, said he was “sickened” by the revelation that a Reform candidate was a former BNP member.

He said: “That vile, racist and anti-Semitic party was rejected in Gateshead before, and its poison has no place in our politics now.

“Saltwell is a strong, diverse community where people of different faiths and backgrounds live side by side. Reform UK must now confirm whether any of their other candidates in Gateshead have links to the BNP – or any other extremist groups – as former members, supporters or sympathisers.

“There are decent candidates from different parties standing in these elections. I am sure they will be as shocked and disgusted as I am by what has been revealed.”

Gateshead Council’s opposition Lib Dem leader, Coun Ron Beadle, added: “The national Reform party have done the right thing by expelling this man but Gateshead Reform looks like a party that is out of control.”

All 66 council seats in Gateshead are up for grabs at the election on May 7, in a race which could radically alter the political face of the area.