MP calls for investigation of Reform’s Dudley Councillor over racist and homophobic posts

Several MPS are calling for an investigation to be launched into Dudley Councillor Caley Ashman over social media posts using racist and homophobic language. Alex Ballinger, MP for Halesowen and Rowley Regis, alongside Dudley Labour MPs Cat Eccles and Sonia Kumar, wrote to Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage MP, to express their concerns about comments made on X - formerly known as Twitter - last year.

The posts were made before Councillor Ashman was elected to represent Cradley North and Wollescote at May’s local elections. Alex Ballinger MP’s letter to Farage came in the wake of the recent ITV investigation. The undercover documentary shone a light on the racist and sexist language and behaviour exhibited by Reform UK councillors and potential candidates. 

Ballinger flagged “serious concerns about the lack of action taken in response to reports of extreme antisemitic and derogatory comments made online by Reform UK Councillor Caley Ashman.”

He writes that “Since May, serious questions have been raised about CIlr Ashman's conduct online, including his reported use of the antisemitic term "goy-slop". He also reportedly wrote that "You shouldn't let foreigners look after the young or old as they don't care about you" as well as sharing a homophobic post that referred to Douglas Murray as a "snaggle-toothed porridge eating semen sipper". 

Ballinger described the racist, antisemitic, and homophobic language used and shared by Cllr Ashman, on the platform X, as “vile rhetoric that holds no place in our politics.” The MP called again for Farage to “finally act and condemn this behaviour”, highlighting the response given by a Reform UK spokesperson to the ITV documentary that stated: “there is no room for racism in Reform UK". 

Ballinger concludes: “You have previously claimed these scandals are the work of ‘a few bad apples’. After the ITV investigation's findings, that explanation no longer holds. This is not a case of a few bad apples. The whole orchard appears rotten.”