Reform UK posts probe unresolved as polling looms

An investigation into social media posts by a Reform UK candidate has not been completed nearly a week before the local elections, party leader Nigel Farage has said.

Ricky Hodges, who runs Sentry Scaffolding and is a former Coldstream Guard, is standing in the Tressell ward for Hastings Borough Council.

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.

Asked what had happened with the investigation, first reported on 16 April, Farage said: "I don't know the answer to that, but it will be dealt with."

He said it would be "sorted out" before polling day on 7 May.

Farage added: "If these statements are genuinely him, then it's not acceptable at any level, and it will be dealt with."

He said the comments were unacceptable "on the face of it", but said it needed to be established whether the comments were really his, and checks on the social media account were required.

Asked whether Hodges had been suspended, Farage said: "Not yet, but it will be dealt with asap."

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

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

Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents who were Christian.

In 2020, Hodges urged veterans 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".

When the BBC previously asked him if he had anything to say to people who might have been offended, Hodges said offence was taken and not given.

Farage said: "We're standing in 99.9% of seats across the entirety of the UK. We've had a handful of examples like this."

He claimed other parties experienced similar problems, adding: "When you're vetting 5,000 people, the odd one is going to slip through in the net."

Farage added: "I'm afraid with mass participation politics in a modern social media age you get some of this.

"If we've been a bit slow on this, I apologise. It will be dealt with."

This month, Hastings Labour MP Helen Dollimore called on Reform UK to drop Hodges as a candidate and remove him from the party.

Katie Amess, daughter of murdered politician Sir David Amess, also called for his suspension, saying "there is no place in our society for our elected officials to have previously called for violence".

Regardless of Reform's decision, it is too late to withdraw or change the ballot papers.

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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