General Election: Reform candidate in Horsham loses party’s support

Hugo Miller had been hoping to become MP for Horsham under the party’s banner until multiple racist posts were reportedly found on his social media.

The party has since said they will not support Mr Miller following a Channel 4 News report.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, Miller said his Facebook profile contained “mostly cat videos” – but he was asked about an image of a van with a racial slur written on it.

Smiling, he said: “Yeah, I took a photograph of that. That was in Miami.”

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He added: “Can’t you see? It’s funny.”

When asked about whether the van might cause offence, Mr Miller said “the people in Miami didn’t find it offensive” and added: “People are terrified to open their mouth now, I’m glad you brought that up – it’s not offensive, it’s funny.”

The programme described Mr Miller’s feed as “a litany of offensive comments” and brought up an image of a post which read: “Not only are dubious Muslims pouring into our country un-checked, they are breeding like rabbits.”

Reform’s deputy party leader Dr David Bull said his party would cast out candidates who fall foul of its standards.

Mr Miller is one of two candidates who will not receive support from the party after Channel 4 News’s package.

Dr Bull said that with several hundred candidates on the Reform UK slate, “there will always be some bad eggs, in terms of candidates”.

He added: “As soon as we find any of them, they will be out.”

Conservative Jeremy Quin is hoping to win back his Horsham seat at the general election on July 4.

The contest for the seat is believed to be a three horse race between Mr Quin, Labour’s James Field and Liberal Democrat John Milne.

The Peace Party, Social Democratic Party and Green Party are all also standing candidates.