Stuart Davies, one of 29 defecting councillors gleefully unveiled by Nigel Farage, sparked a backlash by sharing a Tommy Robinson video and also suggested some women should not be police officers
A politician who shared a Tommy Robinson video and questioned whether some women should be police officers has been gleefully unveiled as a prized Reform UK defector by Nigel Farage.
Stuart Davies, who posted a clip by far-right thug Tommy Robinson, was one of 29 councillors who switched to Reform. Mr Davies, from North Somerset, also shared a post praising Elon Musk for paying Robinson’s legal fees, and said a documentary made by the British rabble rouser “needs to be seen”.
On top of that Mr Davies also said he agreed “to some extent” with a post saying women “should not be policemen”. He attended a press conference on Monday alongside Mr Farage and the Reform leadership as the leader bragged about the new recruits.
Another troubling post by Mr Davies in January suggested tech billionaire Bill Gates was championing vaccines because they reduce fertility. He wrote: “Vaccines have decreased fertility, no wonder Bill Gates championed them we all know he wanted to reduce the population, just another conspiracy theory we were told, what a very sad state of affairs.”
Earlier this year the independent councillor was kicked off a Lib Dem-led coalition group because of his views. He later responded on Facebook: “I’m not necessarily a fan of TR, but I was certainly interested in Elon Musk’s perspective on the matter.”
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Responding to a post by right-wing pundit Calvin Robinson saying women should not join the police, Mr Davies wrote: “I agree to some extent but some women are capable these women are not. The recruitment system of policing is the issue in the UK. DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) above safety!”
The Mirror has contacted Mr Davies and Reform UK for comment. It comes after Mr Farage pledged to step up vetting of candidates. Labour MP Paul Waugh said: “If this is what happens when Nigel Farage supposedly professionalises his Party, I’d hate to see what things would be like if he hadn’t. This could just be the tip of the iceberg. If these are the candidates Farage is happy to put in the media spotlight, just imagine what those he isn’t might have said or done. Reform need to get their house in order.”
Another one of the new defectors, Stephen Reed last month blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the Oval Office flare-up with Donald Trump. He said he “100% agreed” with a post by British-Russian Konstantin Kisin pundit blaming Mr Zelensky.
Mr Kisin wrote after watching the full exchange: “Zelensky decided to attack Vance unnecessarily. He totally messed this up. Yes, Vance played to the gallery afterwards but he was also correct: litigating this stuff in front of the media was really dumb. Really poor from Zelensky – I hope he can see sense, apologise and get a deal for his country.”
Mr Farage has promised to improve vetting of candidates. He told GB News in March: “We’ve been vetting I bet to a standard that no party has ever before for local council elections.
“And the reason is I know we’ll be held to a higher standard than all the others. So yeah we are. You know I promised last year we would professionalise the party, we’d democratize it, we’d open it up, it’s happening.”
Mr Farage proudly showed off the new recruits at a press conference in London on Monday. He said: “Today, I am going to show you the extent to which we are broadening and deepening the party across the country.”
Referring to his bitter spat with suspended MP Rupert Lowe, who questioned his abilty to lead, Mr Farage said: “In the last two weeks, we’ve not been obsessing about what’s being written in the papers, or being said online. We’ve been getting on with the job.”
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