Badenoch slams Reform over Sunderland councillor post

Earlier this month it was reported that Glenn Gibbins, who was recently elected as a Reform councillor in Sunderland, had complained about the “amount of Nigerians in town” in a social media post made in 2024.

According to the campaign group Hope Not Hate, the later-deleted post read: “Should melt them all down and fill in the pot holes!!”

Speaking to Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch branded the comments made by Mr Gibbins as “disgusting” and said that it “worried” her that Reform UK deputy leader Mr Tice would not directly condemn it.

She said: “I think that was a disgusting comment that that Reform candidate made, and the Reform (deputy) leader… Richard Tice, wouldn’t even condemn it.

“That’s what I’m worried about. People say all sorts of stupid things, they should get slapped down when they do that.

“We cannot have a climate of violence against people based on their ethnicity in this country, but you need the leaders of the party, you need the senior ones, to be able to say that’s not what we’re about, that we’re very much against it. When they don’t say that, then we need to be worried.

“And I was really shocked when Richard Tice was interviewed that he would not condemn those comments.”

Last week, Mr Tice was asked whether he was happy for someone with those views to represent the party on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.

In response 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.”

A Labour Party spokesperson later criticised his alleged failure to “call out clear racism”, adding: “It speaks volumes that Richard Tice tried to brush off these comments.”

Mr Tice later posted on X: “I literally said in the interview that I condemn anything that is wrong or inappropriate. Which obviously includes those (Mr Gibbins’s) remarks: simple.”

Reform UK have been approached for comment.