Reform UK is once again facing serious questions over its vetting procedures, this time involving Cllr Ian Cooper (now ex-leader of Staffordshire County Council), who has been accused of posting a large volume of racist and bigoted material on YouTube and X/Twitter under accounts bearing his name.
The party’s track record on candidate selection has been fraught with controversy for months. Councillors have been suspended, have resigned amid scandal, and in some cases have even faced criminal investigations. Against that backdrop, one might reasonably expect Reform UK to exercise particular care when elevating individuals to senior local leadership positions.
Yet that expectation appears to have fallen flat.
The ReformExposed account on X/Twitter recently highlighted that Cllr Cooper had been listed as a “Top Fan” of a Facebook page called The European Race, described by researchers as explicitly racist. In light of that disclosure, we reviewed additional social media profiles linked to Cooper. What we found has prompted profound concern.
Highly inflammatory comments attributed to Cooper
Two further accounts—one on YouTube and one on X/Twitter—appear to operate under Cooper’s real name, with no evident attempt at anonymity. Posts from these accounts include language and claims that, if genuinely authored by him, raise extremely serious questions about his suitability for public office.
In one instance, responding to a clip featuring the lawyer and academic Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, the account attributed to Cooper used a derogatory distortion of her name and suggested she should “F[uck] off back to Nigeria”. The phrasing, if proven to be his, would amount to overt racial hostility directed at a British citizen engaged in public debate.
Other posts linked to the same accounts appear to draw upon far-right conspiracy narratives. One message from late last year claimed that people arriving from the “Global Majority South” were “intent on colonising the UK” and “destroying all that has gone before”—language strongly associated with extremist propaganda.
On X/Twitter, the same pattern emerges. In response to a benign post by presenter Sangita Myska, the account insisted that she could not be English and dismissed her British citizenship as no more than “a piece of paper”—despite her upbringing in Britain.
Posts from February show the account referring to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as a “narcissistic Pakistani” and implying that MP David Lammy should not be allowed to sit in the House of Commons. Both men were born in London.
If these posts are indeed Cooper’s, they show a willingness to publicly target high-profile Black and Asian Britons using language that many would regard as overtly racist.
Pattern of controversy in Reform UK’s Staffordshire ranks
These allegations do not appear in isolation. Earlier this year, the party’s Staffordshire County Organiser, David Hyden-Milakovic, resigned after HOPE not hate reported his alleged connections to the neo-Nazi organisation Patriotic Alternative.
Just a fortnight ago, another Staffordshire councillor issued an apology after previously posting about “fat-arsed black women” and describing police officers as “indoctrinated British-hating scum”.
Against this backdrop, Reform UK’s internal controls and judgement are now under sharper scrutiny than ever.
A leadership question Reform UK cannot dodge
In an interview with the Local Government Chronicle, Cooper claimed he planned to perform his duties with “competence and professionalism” and aimed to “keep under the radar”.
The real question, however, is whether Reform UK is willing to stand behind a council leader who is alleged to have told Black Britons to “F[uck] off back to Nigeria”, and who has been linked to accounts pushing racially charged conspiracy rhetoric.
If the party chooses to keep him in post, it will be doing so in full view of a growing catalogue of allegations involving racism, extremism, and discriminatory behaviour within its own ranks. If it removes him, he will simply join the long—and rapidly expanding—list of figures the party has had to disown.
Either way, Reform UK could no longer claim ignorance and on Friday his Reform membership was revoked.
