Covid, chemtrails and climate: the wild ideas spread by Reform UK candidates

Some of the most senior prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) of Reform, the rightwing populist party, have been found to have posted conspiracy theories and other fringe views online. Yet, far from distancing itself, the party has backed them. Here are seven examples:

Trevor Lloyd-Jones – Aldershot

Lloyd-Jones is standing in a seat that some analyses identify as one of Reform’s top targets. He spread anti-vaccine content on Facebook, including a picture showing graffiti of a needle with the words “duped admit it” scrawled above.

He also posted a meme that made the baseless accusation the former health secretary Matt Hancock had a large number of elderly people killed, using the Covid pandemic as cover.

The image was accompanied by the words: “I built a huge stockpile of the drug midazolam, then took all the elderly out of hospital, put them in care homes, and killed them with midazolam and called it Covid” overlaid on a picture of Hancock’s face.

And he shared content promoting the “15-minute cities” conspiracy theory originally posted by a far-right US figure.

Lloyd-Jones declined to comment.

Alex Stevenson – Amber Valley

Stevenson posted content promoting some of the conspiracy theories spread in recent months by the former Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, who lost the whip after comparing the use of Covid vaccines to the Holocaust.

Stevenson, also standing in a seat seen as key to Reform, posted content from a US-based conspiracy theorist who has spread debunked claims that the Covid vaccines caused a huge spike in excess deaths. Stevenson added the caption, in block capitals: “No matter how you manipulate the figures, you quite simply can not hide the dead bodies!”

And he posted a video made by a YouTuber who has been accused of spreading misinformation about the pandemic.

Stevenson has not responded to a request for comment.

Lynn Murphy – Easington

Murphy is also standing for a seat identified as being among Reform’s top targets. She has called the climate emergency a “make-believe climate crisis”.

During an exchange on her Facebook account, she wrote: “You are deluded if you think the world is going to end due to climate change. The climate changes every season, we have Bill Gates creating clouds to block out the sun, yet the Earth is a fireball of molten lava, basic high school science teaches you that.”

Murphy has not responded to a request for comment.

Chris Farmer – Gloucester

Farmer has spread conspiracy theories, including one that claims the World Economic Forum is conspiring to control the UK government, and another in which a group of mayors representing the world’s leading cities are trying to use the climate emergency to justify banning people from travelling by private car.

It represents, he claimed, the “end of life as we know it”, adding in an online post on the subject: “Ignore all climate crisis claims, because they are invented to justify the creation of dictatorships.” And he wrote that any expert who says CO₂ is a pollutant is “either confused, wrong or lying”.

Farmer has not responded to a request for comment.

Andrea Whitehead – Leeds West and Pudsey

Whitehead has posted memes online promoting the chemtrail conspiracy theory. She told the Guardian she viewed this coming to light as an opportunity for “free publicity”.

Hamish Haddow – Chipping Barnet

Haddow has accused the RNLI – sometimes called upon to help save people who feel they have no better choice than to attempt the perilous Channel crossing to seek safety in the UK – as “working as a taxi service for illegal immigrants”.

In 2022, he stood down as a Conservative candidate for local council elections in 2022 after tweets reportedly emerged showing he had said he was rooting for Vladimir Putin. According to a report, Haddow later claimed this was a joke. Haddow has declined to comment.

Noel Matthews – North West Leicestershire

Reform’s national organiser, responsible for dropping candidates for beyond-the-pale comments, reportedly defended Tommy Robinson and mocked Islamophobia while standing for the party at the 2019 election.

According to BuzzFeed, he tweeted a link to an article that claimed the convicted fraudster and far-right agitator Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, had been “persecuted”. And he added his own exclamation, “THIS”, which is often understood to indicate the author agrees with the message they are quoting.

He also promoted content that called Islamophobia a “silly, made up word” and, separately, tweeted: “Is it Islamaphobia or Islamophobia? I missed it when that word was made up.” Despite this, Reform selected him again this time round.

Matthews claimed never to have said Islamophobia was made up, adding: “I do not deny that there is unwarranted hatred of Muslims in society and I abhor it.”

He said he was quoting someone else when he tweeted the words “Islamophobia is a silly, made up word”. And he did not respond to a request to clarify how his denial tallied with the second tweet.

Reform’s response

A party spokesperson said: “This collection of allegations appears to be rather scraping the barrel. A series of people posting mostly comedy memes and questions about issues that affect many people of the country. In some cases they are not what the Guardian would expect people involved in politics to post and say.

“But Reform is proud to have amongst its candidates people who are not cookie-cutter, careerist politicians; terrified of their own shadow, and terrified that others might question their opinions.

“Some of their views may be considered eccentric, but none here are malicious. Reform UK opposes net zero and the climate-change agenda. It is proud of our country’s history, it does feel that the complete Covid lockdowns were damaging to the country, its economy and the wellbeing of its people.

“Look closely at anyone and some of their opinions may be felt eccentric, even Guardian readers – perhaps especially Guardian readers. But to chase all of them out of politics does them and the country a disservice.”

The spokesperson followed up with a second statement, adding: “It is clear from the level of these allegations that Reform’s opponents are scraping the barrel.” In an email bearing the party’s address in Westminster, he added: “These candidates are in the centre of public opinion, but not of the soi-disant opinion” of Westminster and north London.

He said: “Maybe your researchers should get out a little bit more. It is well known that Reform will remove candidates who profess views that are beyond the pale of reasonable discourse. In that, they differ from the legacy parties, who hide behind suspensions and interminable investigations.”