Reform UK councillor suspended over WhatsApp group featuring extremist posts

A Reform UK councillor has been suspended for participating in a WhatsApp group where members allegedly called for a “mass Islam genocide”. Tom Pickup, who was elected to Lancashire county council in May, confirmed to the Guardian he was a member of the group set up by a rightwing activist. In one exchange, one person said Keir Starmer “needs a fucking bullet”, to which another replied: “He’s a DICKtator.” Pickup responded by calling the prime minister a “dicktaker”. In other messages, he called a government minister a “Ukrainian boy penetrator” and said he agreed with “mass deportations”. He posted: “Everyone in Reform is a lot more hardline on immigration than is typically stated publicly, to get a majority government we have to be tactical.” Nigel Farage’s party confirmed to the Guardian that Pickup had been suspended on Wednesday pending an investigation. Pickup, who was the council’s lead member for resources and finance, admitted he was a member of the group but said his messages had been “twisted out of context”. He said he was not aware of the more extreme posts, which included one person allegedly calling for a “mass Islam genocide” and encouraging others to stockpile weapons to attack “lefties” and “migrants”. Pickup said his comment about Starmer being a “dicktaker” was a “jokey comment” but had been “poor judgment”. He told the Guardian: “99% of what occurs in groups, I don’t see. Based on my involvement in it and what I have seen, I’ve been my usual jokey self and it’s been twisted out of context.” Pickup said he had left the group this week when screenshots of his messages were posted on social media. He said he had tried to find other posts but that messages after 24 hours were automatically deleted so they had been lost. Asked whether he supported calls for a “mass Islam genocide”, Pickup said: “Of course not. I’ve done a lot of community engagement work with the Islamic community. It’s something that I would have condemned and probably reported but I don’t know if they [the messages] are genuine. I’ve not seen them.” Samara Barnes, a Labour councillor on Lancashire county council, called for Pickup to resign as a councillor and said she had reported him to the authority’s standards watchdog. She added: “We are at a time when we’re living in a tinderbox and if people are suggesting we should be having an Islam genocide, this is domestic terrorism. “We’ve seen what can happen when people become radicalised, people become emboldened to do really nasty things. This is beyond an apology or some training. This is more serious and Reform UK need to really take a stand.” A spokesperson for Lancashire county council said: “We are aware that county councillor Tom Pickup has been suspended from Reform UK pending investigation. Cllr Pickup remains a councillor, sitting as an independent.”