Reform is "not the solution, not the resistance, not the future"

Former branch chairman slams party for "lies, absolute lies" and "abandoned promises" as row rumbles on

By Gary Chappell

FORMER Reform branch chairman Chris Littlewood has hit out at the party saying they are “not the answer” to fix broken Britain as the row intensifies.

Littlewood spoke in the wake of the fallout, which saw MP Rupert Lowe suspended from the party following allegations of harassment against women and allegations of bullying towards chairman Zia Yusuf. Lowe has denied the allegations.

Littlewood’s entire branch for Reform UK – Chester North and Neston / Ellesmere Port and Bromborough – resigned over the issue earlier this month.

The spat has damaged the party’s image as potential saviours of a disjointed country, with millions unhappy and dismayed by the current Labour Government, not even a year after they came to power.

It has also put Reform leader Nigel Farage in a different light, after he decided to play the race card in his defence of Yusuf, saying criticism of the chairman was simply “racism”.

This caused Littlewood to firstly resign as branch chairman, with his entire staff also stepping down, but then speak out over his concerns about the party.

Writing on social media, he said: “The truth about Reform UK that no one wants to say out loud. I want to speak openly about something that has been building for some time.

“I vehemently disagreed with Richard Tice over his support of the Genetic Modification injections [Covid jabs]. I had a major fallout in WhatsApp groups and online with his partner [journalist Isabel Oakeshott], who flatly refused to even listen to the countless people whose friends and family members were murdered with midazolam and morphine.

“Despite that, I put my concerns aside. Why? Because I believed Reform UK was the best and only hope left to save our country.

“Myself and a team of dedicated individuals gave everything to build a local branch capable of challenging Labour in two of their strongest constituencies. We believed in the mission and we backed it with action.

“But the deeper we got, the more obvious the truth became.

MUCH TO PONDER: Nigel Farage (left) and Zia Yusuf

“The disgraceful treatment of Rupert Lowe. The total lack of support for local branches across the country. The refusal to honour their own Contract with the People, walking back on firm pledges to leave the ECHR [European Court of Human Rights], now reduced to vague talk of a referendum and abandoning their promise to deport illegal immigrants by refusing to act on those already here.

“And the lies, the absolute lies, about democratising the party. We were told that members would shape policy. That local people would be empowered. That branches would have a voice. But none of it was true.

“Branches were not allowed to vote on their own officers. Just interim appointments who could be removed at the whim of party HQ. Decisions were made behind closed doors. Ordinary members were sidelined. Community voice was replaced by central control. This was not a grassroots movement. It was a top down illusion.

“And I am saying this not out of bitterness, but because people need to wake up.

“Reform UK is not the solution. They are not the resistance. They are not the future. They will either fold or morph into Conservative 2.0, another cog in the same broken machine.

“And I know that will upset some people. I understand why. Because when you are clinging to the wreckage, anything that looks like hope is hard to let go of. But we must let go.

“This country is crying out for something different, not just new faces, but a new system. One that puts people in control. We need something that holds politicians to account. That lets communities choose and remove their own representatives. That makes promises legally binding, not optional. In short, we need real democracy, not the theatre we are currently fed.”

Littlewood then intimated that a new party might be in the pipeline. Lowe and another former Reform member, Ben Habib, have already been rumoured to be launching a rival.

Littlewood said: “I am not walking away. I am stepping up. And I know I am not alone. If you have felt that something is not right , if you have felt ignored, lied to and betrayed, then you already know. Deep down, you know this system has to go. There is a better way. And we are going to build it.”

This week, Reform announced Sarah Pochin as the party’s candidate for Runcorn and Helsby.

Within hours, social media was awash with posts showing how Pochin had previously attended a “Refugees Welcome” event in Macclesfield – something which appears to be completely at odds with their claims to want to tackle immigration.

Indeed, part of the row involving Low suggested his stance on deporting large swathes of illegal immigrants – purporting to be asylum seekers – annoyed Farage. Farage went on record to say that mass deportations of illegal immigrants is a “political impossibility”.

Pochin’s arrival appears to blur these lines even further. Are they pro-immigration, will they actually stop the unfettered arrival on boats into the Kent coastline of fighting-age males, or are they going to do next to nothing like Labour and the Tories and simply feed and house them on the taxpayer?

“I’m ashamed to have been part of such a rotten organisation”

The row shows no signs of abating. On Tuesday, March 25, Lowe said he was “ashamed to have been part of such a rotten organisation”, after Reform published findings from a lawyer appointed to investigate complaints from two women about the conduct of Lowe and two members of his male staff.

The lawyer claimed to have found “credible evidence of unlawful harassment”. This was all confirmed in a statement which was published by Reform on social media.

In response, Lowe also took to social media, saying: “I have spoken to my team – they are horrified that they have been publicly named by Reform. Separate to my own action, they are now in touch with a legal team. By Reform putting their names in the public domain, they have been libelled and endangered. It's shameful.

“These are young men and women trying to do their job and they have been assaulted with these lies based on zero evidence. We have heard nothing from the official Parliamentary body, which is where this should happen – as anyone in Parliament will tell you. I will be urgently arranging to discuss this with the Speaker.”

Prior to the row, Lowe was gaining popularity and credence for asking some tough questions in Parliament.

Now it seems Reform are the ones needing to answer some tough questions.

And at the end of it all, Britain remains broken. With no sign of any saviour.