Candidate conspiracy claims nonsense, say rivals

A local Reform UK branch has been accused of talking "nonsense" after suggesting rival political parties conspired to ensure it could not field a candidate in a by-election.

Last week Reform withdrew its support for Mike Manning in a Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council by-election following the discovery of his offensive posts.

The party's Redcar branch has since accused Labour and the Liberal Democrats of not flagging the posts until the deadline for nominating election candidates had passed, preventing it from fielding another nominee.

The council's Labour leader Alec Brown and the town's Lib Dems said the claims were "nonsense".

On Sunday, Reform's Redcar branch put out a statement on Facebook suggesting that Labour and the Lib Dems had withheld posting about Manning's tweets until the deadline for submitting nominees for the Zetland ward's by-election had passed on 23 January.

"They made it impossible for us to field a replacement candidate in this by-election," the statement said.

But Brown said he was first made aware of Manning's offensive posts after the X account @ReformExposed shared screenshots of the tweets on 26 January.

He said: "It's complete nonsense to suggest that we would hold on to that information. We're busy with our own candidates, we're not going to go about vetting other people's candidates."

Redcar's Lib Dems said: "Reform are talking nonsense to try and cover up their candidate's appalling tweets.

"We raised our concerns as soon as we saw his tweets."

Reform withdrew its support for Manning after his social media posts were unearthed, saying they were "unacceptable".

It said Manning had not declared his X account to the party during its vetting process.

Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper previously said the posts included "sickening insults at Jewish and Muslim communities".

Manning will still appear as a Reform UK candidate on ballot papers because electoral law means they effectively cannot be changed after publication.

Reform said Manning would not be allowed to sit as a Reform UK councillor if elected.

Last week he wrote on Facebook: "In light of the unfortunate tweets I made, for which I profusely apologise, I have now resigned from the Reform party. If I could, I would withdraw my name from the ballot."

The Zetland ward by-election is due to take place on 19 February.

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