Reform UK expels Gateshead election candidate over BNP ties

Reform UK has expelled a candidate for May's local elections for failing to declare his former membership of the British National Party (BNP), the BBC understands. David Prior was standing for the party in Saltwell for a seat on Gateshead Council, and will still appear on ballot papers on 7 May. As first reported by The Jewish News, Reform UK said it had expelled Prior and withdrawn support for his candidacy. The party has a longstanding rule that it would not accept anyone who had been in the BNP. When approached for comment by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Prior said: "It was 20 years ago and I am not that person any more, I am devastated to tell you the truth." He said: "I'm just devastated that something that happened 20 years ago…I don't know what to say." Gateshead Labour MP Mark Ferguson said he was "shocked and disgusted" and called on Reform to confirm whether any other candidates in Gateshead had links to the BNP or "any other extremist groups". The far-right anti-immigration party, which has been criticised as racist, saw the height of its popularity in the early 2000s. Ferguson said the BNP had been "rejected in Gateshead before, and its poison has no place in