Reform investigate councillor who said ‘Nigerians should be melted down to fill pot holes’

Speaking on BBC’s Politics North, deputy leader of Durham County Council Darren Grimes claimed Gibbins had been suspended from the party.

Grimes said: ‘He’s been suspended and the party is investigating those very serious allegations and will act on them.’

He agreed it had been ‘a failure of the vetting process’.

‘I accept that, I do accept that,’ he said, before swiping at antisemitism allegations against the Green Party.

But a Reform spokesman toldMetro: ‘The investigation is still ongoing. No decision has been made yet.’

The investigation came after Reform deputy leader Richard Tice refused to directly criticise Gibbins, instead accusing the media of ‘smearing’ his party.

Asked if Mr Gibbins views represented Reform UK, he said: ‘This weekend we are celebrating our incredible successes.

‘Like any party, we have internal party processes to look where people have said or done the wrong thing.”

He continued: ‘I condemn everything that is wrong and inappropriate.

‘Voters have heard all of this smearing and this sneering against all of us, and they have voted for more Reform.’

Another Reform candidate who allegedly said the Holocaust was a hoax also won a seat in the local elections.

Jay Cooper, who won one of three seats in the Sefton Council for the Bootle West ward, has been accused of spewing out conspiracy theories and labelling the genocide of millions of Jewish people ‘propaganda.’

The earlier social media comments made by the newly elected councillor from Merseyside Reform have come under scrutiny following his win with 705 votes.

In a since-deleted Facebook post made last September, Cooper referred to the death of US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk with caption ‘Heartbreaking. Murdered for having an opinion,’ the Liverpool Echo reported.

A comment made by another user said that Adolf Hitler had an opinion and asked ‘did he deserve to die?’

Coope responded: ‘I don’t agree with him murdering innocent people. But the Hallocaust [sic] is a hoax.

‘There wasn’t [sic] even 6 million Jews in Europe at the time. Propaganda.’

In January 2024 he shared a video suggesting that the 9/11 terror attacks in the US were not real.

The video repost, which is still up on Cooper’s profile, said: ‘Ultimate proof. 9/11 is not what we thought it was.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this,check our news page.