UK Politics

Eight Reform UK candidates have made a wide range of offensive remarks online about women in the past, the BBC can reveal.

The remarks include disparaging comments about the murdered MP Jo Cox, former Prime Minister Theresa May, and a black reality TV contestant.

The comments were posted between 2011 and 2023.

Reform UK and the candidates involved have all been approached for comment.

Earlier this week, the party said it planned to sue a company it hired to vet potential MPs.

Among the candidates whose comments the BBC has uncovered is Simon Moorehead, standing in Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West, who wrote on X: "[Jo] Cox was a dreadful woman, with bad ideas".

He then added: "No-one wanted her dead though"

Mark Cole, the candidate in Harwich and North Essex, said in a Facebook post: "Accidently switched on to X-Factory. The only thing worth watching is the black bint.... whoever she is."

Mr Cole deleted this comment after being approached by the BBC.

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Malcolm Cupis, the candidate for Melksham and Devizes, accused women dancing in a music video posted on Youtube of "behaving like a gutter slut" and referred to one woman as a "malignant old hag".

Mr Cupis told the BBC he stood by his comments.

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Ian Gribbin, the candidate for Bexhill and Battle, who we previously revealed had written that the UK should have stayed neutral in World War Two, posted a series of comments on the UnHerd website which included saying: “Right now all men pay for all women: we pay 80% of tax and you take out 80%. The fact you’re able to write on a technological device is all down to us.

“The cultural feminisation of the west is a disaster of epic proportions. We have elevated female characteristics – especially neuroticism, to the highest levels. Hysteria is now common place. The evidence from repeated psychologically testing is that women are appalling at taking criticism.

“Modern feminism belongs in the sewer of self hate from which it came: you say it yourself, you’re all jealous of the perceived freedoms of men.”

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Asked about the vetting issues in a BBC Panorama interview which aired on Friday, Mr Farage said: "Frankly, they [Reform UK] were so desperate for people to stand that people stood, and then we employed a big vetting company who didn't do the job.

"I can assure you that when the Labour Party go through those that apply, when the Conservative Party go through those that apply, they have to reject many."

He also said the party had had "an awful lot of candidates being stitched up in the most extraordinary way, with quotes taken out of context".