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.

I think they are real people - just with no intention of being elected. Hence no presence in the constituency. If they don’t do any actual campaigning / produce campaign literature then they have no election expenses - making it easier for their election agent (especially if they are their own election agent).

@MalcolmTuckersSwearBox he's actually a nice lad. Only 20, bit naive but when asked how he'd vote if local people disagreed with something Reform were pushing he said hed go with his constituents. And I believe he would.
Not sure he quite understood the implications of standing for Reform but as a Tory councilor he did do good work locally.
Our MP was Tory, thankfully no more, and we had a strong Labour candidate so I guess he felt Reform was an option for him.

I think they are real people - just with no intention of being elected

Certainly it's possible that like the earlier poster's DH, some of them were tapped from the Reform Party mailing list and said 'sure, use my name and address but nothing else for your campaign'.

The lack of any online presence for these photoless eggs is quite concerning though?

Maybe they’ve been chosen because they have no online presence?

I don't think if they were asking people from their mailing list to be candidates that they actually had a choice.

Ours was elected so I hope he's real! He certainly wasn't openly campaigning like the Labour candidate who was all over local media, cinema adverts and social media.

I can find bits of information about a Mark Matlock present in the South Cotswolds constituency - he seems to have registered a correspondence address at Companies House a few years ago that is the same as another antiques dealer that he has acted on behalf of.

So I’m guessing a real person just not a real candidate in the sense that he had no intention of being elected.

Was that Great Yarmouth? I was so disappointed in the result there, the Labour guy seemed lovely, local, solution focused. And the Reform guy doesn't live there, won't live there and was privately educated and works in finance. No idea what he will bring to Yarmouth.

I’m convinced most of the greater Glasgow Reform candidates don’t exist. No bios, no pictures, no campaign leaflets or canvassing, no social media presence whatsoever.

@CyanideShake literally no online presence at all compared to the winning candidate who had a very active social media presence and a working history that was easily accessible on google.

Surely given candidates had to register in person at city chambers SOMEONE would have flagged inappropriate attempts? 😔.

I wonder who is financing all these mystery candidates? Who paid the election deposit - their details will have been recorded. That said Helen Burns lost her election deposit alongside the Tory and Lib Dem candidates in Glasgow North.

Discovering a Mark Matlock who lives in the Cotswolds isn't the same as discovering Reform candidate Mark Matlock who lives in the Cotswolds? And it doesn't explain the AI photo.

It seems like buying your name on a ballot paper with no intention of campaigning or being elected is a thing though. Given that if your party wins a seat, you then get money per votes from the government, this seems like a bit of a grift.

Surely given candidates had to register in person at city chambers SOMEONE would have flagged inappropriate attempts?

Do they have to? Did that guy who lives in Gibraltar have to fly over to Bristol to register?

Sadly mine was real - it's Farage.

No, I just checked - it can be someone else as long as they provide their own information. Apologies, I assumed.

Have you written to him yet?
I'd have a long list of things for him to do...

There’s only one Mark Matlock that’s been born in England and Wales in the last 50 years. From publicly available data, he just happens to have an address in the South Cotswolds constituency.

Mark Matlock the Reform candidate posted a photo of Cirencester MIIU to illustrate why he couldn’t attend the count.

Cirencester Hospital is 10 miles away from the Mark Matlock address.

That does seem like an awful lot of coincidences?

As for the AI photo - well, wouldn’t you if you weren’t actually genuine about standing as an MP?

Don't you think it more likely they've locked down their social media and had personal data removed online given the intense scrutiny they were likely to get and the press appetite for dirt on MPs and prospective MPs?

Not to mention online harassment of them, their families and friends?

That is good sleuthing! 🕵️ Now do Helen Burns!

However, if you are embarrassed about standing for Reform to the point that you provide an AI photo to hide that it's you (despite using your real name), why not avoid the issue by not standing?

Or, as many others have seem to have done, provide no photo at all?

Of course, but some data is still on public record.

Given that there was no chance of them winning, they didn't campaign or provide any information or photo....why would they do something that requires removing all their online presence? Why have their name next to Reform UK whenever anyone googles them from now on?

What's in it for them?

Ah, the million dollar question.

Our Reform candidate says that his parents are from this area. There is a photo of him if you Google. His name is linked to 4 dissolved companies, one has a local address. Who knows what is true.

^ this @ruby1957
Anyone who stands for election should be a real person and provide ID in order to be a candidate.
Who knows what dodgy dealings can have been done.

Companies House never forgets
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12715894/filing-history