Reform under pressure over Gateshead candidate’s Facebook posts

Nigel Farage’s party has been urged to take action over comments made by Linda McFarlane, a Reform candidate in Gateshead’s Chopwell and Rowlands Gill ward.

It comes after Reform expelled another Gateshead candidate, David Prior, when it emerged this week that he was formerly a member of the British National Party (BNP).

In a Facebook post seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Ms McFarlane expressed support for far right activist Tommy Robinson.

Ahead of his release from prison last year, having been jailed for contempt of court in relation to repeating false claims he made against a Syrian refugee, she said that he “should never have been locked up”.

Last August she also reposted a video suggesting that King Charles III had converted to Islam and wrote that the late Queen Elizabeth II would “never allow Ramadan if she’d still be Queen”. 

In September 2025, she posted an image of Enoch Powell which contained the caption “it’s not hate to put your own people first” and wrote “Well said Enoch” and “your words are coming true”.

Mr Powell, the anti-immigration former Conservative MP, is known for the infamous 1968 ‘rivers of blood’ speech.

The anti-racism campaign group Hope Not Hate reported that an X account in the name of Ms McFarlane’s Lasting Enhancements cosmetic clinic, which had her photo as its profile image, posted “you should all be shot” at the accounts of Sir Keir Starmer and justice secretary David Lammy.

Screenshots of the account also include comments calling for only white English people to be allowed to become MPs and saying “let them all drown” in response to a post about migrants crossing the channel.

A Reform UK Spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Friday that the party is “thoroughly looking into the allegations and posts”. 

Liz Twist, the Labour MP for Blaydon and Consett, said it was “appalling that someone who has these views was selected as a candidate to represent the Chopwell and Rowlands Gill ward”.

She added that the area was “renowned for being a supportive community, one where people of all backgrounds and faiths can live side by side in support of each other”.

The Labour MP said: “There should be an urgent need from Reform to clarify if any further candidates have similar views within their vetting process.”

Hope Not Hate also questioned whether Mike Porritt, Reform UK’s candidate for Whickham South and Sunniside, was a “suitable” person to hold public office.

Mr Porritt was well known as the entrepreneur behind the CarShock chain of car dealerships, which collapsed in 2007.

The company owed £4.4m to creditors and 53 staff lost their jobs, while he was later declared bankrupt in 2009 having given  personal guarantees for £8m of finance from the Santander banking group.

On a Reform election leaflet, Mr Porritt promises to “use his years of business experience and social care to do everything he can to defend and improve the character of our community”. 

Mr Porritt also made headlines over his 2004 appearance in the Channel 4 show ‘Boss Swap’. He was placed at an estate agent’s office for the show and sacked its owner’s wife.

The LDRS has contacted both Ms McFarlane and Mr Porritt for a response.