Was your Reform candidate a fake?

[noblegiraffe]

We know that the election was called unexpectedly and that small parties had to rush around last minute to find people to stand in all the constituencies. We know that Reform had problems with (lack of) vetting and some of theirs had to be dropped mid-campaign due to being problematic.

I saw a couple of amusing videos on twitter about someone worried that their Glaswegian Reform candidate Helen Burns didn't actually exist
https://x.com/kbfilms92/status/1808772750938448124?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g
https://x.com/kbfilms92/status/1808857245456773492?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g

This morning I see that the North Northumberland Reform candidate Katherine Hales was suspiciously absent from all proceedings.

https://x.com/josiahmortimer/status/1809583328049168541?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g

Clifford Ronald Thomas Bond in York Central also had no photos and the same generic leaflet as Helen Burns.

Helen Burns got 1655 votes, Katherine Hales got 7688 votes, Cliff Bond got 4721 votes. These start stacking up when you are talking about vote share and they're not the only missing candidates.

Did your Reform candidate appear to be a real person standing for election? Are there rules requiring people standing for election to actually do anything apart from be a name on paper? It seems suspicious, particularly if that party is now banging on about their vote share, if it came via dodgy means.

The Clapham candidate description sounds strange. He is described as a dedicated and experienced leader but doesn’t say what he is a leader of.

I don't know if the Lancaster and Wyre candidate was real, but he was definitely not literate. I assume ChatGPT would have at least fixed that for him.

What obligations does an MP have to their constituents?
I am thinking Nigel in particular - what is the bear minimum that he needs to do?

I would truly love it if people in Clacton involved him in parking issues, some minor church hall that faced closure, doing a charity fun run, etc.

Where I am we've been lucky enough to have local MPs, of varying standard of course, but I am sure that they are fulfilling their duties on paper at least.

Our Reform candidate was real but not local, but near enough to visit if he had got in.

Ours is real and appears to be local. He did do some campaigning and attended a couple of hustings, which the Conservative candidate didn’t bother to and still got elected 🙄. We did get the generic leaflet with Farage and Tice on it though, no photo of the actual candidate.

It would be interesting if one or more of the Reform candidates who was actually elected turned out to be imaginary. Would they have to do a Sinn Fein and refuse to take their seat?

I’ve just researched our candidate and although I have no doubts he is real he is only 19. He has apparently lived in the constituency for a year so I would suspect a uni student especially as we have student halls in the constituency. He got over 8000 votes.

@noblegiraffe

"Oops. How did he manage to sign the forms?"

They didn't, that's how Reform found out he was dead I believe they were contacted to tell them he was dead after reform sacked him for inactivity.

🤣🤣🤣

@EarthlyNightshade I hope Farage and the rest of them turn out to be really shitty constituency MPs.

Ours was real, although a walking, talking parody of a Little Englander wanting to save Great Britain (obviously forgetting that Northern Ireland also exists).

Which was a bit weird given that she’s American.

Mine is real, local and anti-immigration, though I don’t know how he thinks the local economy would function without it.

Well Farage will be dreadful, based on his performance as an MEP.
He doesn’t ever do anything that a) doesn’t directly benefit himself or b) requires going through the proper official channels in a diligent manner.

I couldn't find our reform candidate anywhere yet he got 3k votes. His blurb was his dad grew up In<near by village> he had served in local regiment And had a local business, it was all very bizarre !

Real in what sense? Ours existed however dropped out at the last minute as he deflected to the tories. It was too late for reform to place another candidate. There are rumours that money was exchanged hands by the tories. So he was fake in the sense that he wasn't a reform candidate but he was a real living person.

Real as in actually exist.

Paper candidates like the one in Thurrock who put his name down but didn't expect to win and now has to actually be an MP are one thing.

Candidates who only appear to exist as a name on the ballot, with no photo, no biography, no online presence and no real world presence are another thing entirely.

Our candidate was real. I remember him from school. He was a nasty little bully back then. Seems little has changed!

Farage is astute. He (like Trump) knows that people vote based on feelings and ideas, and often don’t want to be bothered with the detail. So imaginary candidates fit the bill, gain votes, perpetuate division and destroy the Conservatives. Win-win for him.

I guess that's why he'd be so keen on proportional representation. He wouldn't even need to bother making up candidates anymore.

I’m sure this would be election fraud. In our area, the conservatives lost out to reform vote, and Labour got in, in several areas.
If the candidates are completely fictitious, its electoral fraud, and is pretty fraudulent, if they are just standing on behalf of another party

Mine was real, and local!

No. Ours was removed for being ex BNP.
There was some interesting fall out on the local facebook pages from Reform voters who didn't inderstand how it worked.

Let's hope his new constituents only need banking advice!

Maybe Reform has accidentally been created by ChatGPT or some other LLM.

"Mark Matlock" has an email address: [email protected]

Be interesting to see if he responds to any emails about the recent GE.....

This is likely someone's dad/husband/brother. He volunteered for the RNLI