Nazi tweets, pulped leaflets and AI slop
While 2026 has been a pretty good year for Reform UK on the national scale, when it comes to Sheffield, things got off to a rocky start. In January, an incident led to the permanent expulsion of four prominent members of the East Sheffield branch, which triggered the voluntary departure of quite a few more. It all started with the interviews for those originally hoping to represent the party in next month’s local elections, which saw potential candidates asked to take part in a roleplay demonstrating how they would react if a gay couple attended their surgery. A piece in Yorkshire Live headlined “Sheffield Reform UK branch 'in tatters' after 'amped' role play interview 'crossed a line'” revealed that one of the roleplayers was accused of sitting in a candidate’s lap and kissing the top of his head, although video footage seen by Yorkshire Live reportedly shows he restrained himself to a comparatively chaste side-hug. Those ousted from the party included the admins of the Reform Sheffield East Facebook page, who labelled themselves “The Truth Teller Team” and revealed in a post that they had received life-time bans “for bringing the party into disrepute”. Comments responding to their announcement made ominous references to “a kangaroo court”, as well as “internal whispering, second hand reporting and confusion at regional level”. The end result was a schism within Sheffield’s political right, which caused many former Reform supporters to jump ship to the new Advance UK party, set up by Reform’s previous co-deputy leader Ben Habib. (The group have subsequently left Advance to join Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain.)Rebuilding an entire branch less than six months before an election is no mean feat but, almost five months later, that’s pretty much what Reform UK has done. The party is fielding candidates in all 28 wards in the city, plus two more in Beighton and Firth Park (where there are extra vacancies). Given this logistical triumph — and the probable loss of votes due to the split — you might expect Reform’s candidates to be clamouring for attention, knocking so hard on the door to The Tribune’s office that the wood threatens to split.Park and Arbourthorne candidate Matt Smith (right) with a party volunteer. Photo: Matt Smith.You’d be wrong. In the course of reporting this story, not one of the party’s 30 candidates agreed to an interview, even over the phone. While I got the odd message back over Facebook, dozens of emails, cold calls and home visits fell on deaf ears. If the polls are to be believed, several members of this elusive group might sit in the council chamber next month; if the party does really well, they might fundamentally shift the balance of power in this city. Why don’t they want to talk about it?
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