Reform UK expels candidate over BNP ties
EPAReform UK has expelled a candidate for May's local elections for failing to declare his former membership of the British National Party (BNP), the BBC understands.
David Prior was standing for the party in Saltwell for a seat on Gateshead Council, and will still appear on ballot papers on 7 May.
Reform UK said it had expelled Prior and withdrawn support for his candidacy. The party has a longstanding rule that it would not accept anyone who had been in the BNP.
Gateshead Labour MP Mark Ferguson said he was "shocked and disgusted" and called on Reform to confirm whether any other candidates in Gateshead had links to the BNP or "any other extremist groups".
The far-right anti-immigration party, which has been criticised as racist, saw the height of its popularity in the early 2000s.
Ferguson said the BNP had been "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," he added.
Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition on Gateshead Council Ron Beadle said: "The national Reform Party have done the right thing by expelling this person but Gateshead Reform looks like a party that is out of control."
A spokesman for Reform UK 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"Reform UK has withdrawn our support for his candidacy."
The party clarified it had "proscribed the BNP" and it was on its "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.
The BBC has attempted to contact Prior for comment.
