Tom Pickup, a Reform UK councillor on Lancashire county council, has been suspended after participating in a WhatsApp group where members allegedly called for a “mass Islam genocide”. Pickup, elected in May, admitted to being a member of the group set up by a rightwing activist.
In the group, one participant said Keir Starmer “needs a fucking bullet”, to which another replied: “He’s a DICKtator.” Pickup responded by calling the prime minister a “dicktaker”. He also referred to a government minister as a “Ukrainian boy penetrator” and expressed support for “mass deportations”. He posted: “Everyone in Reform is a lot more hardline on immigration than is typically stated publicly, to get a majority government we have to be tactical.”
Reform UK confirmed to the Guardian that Pickup was suspended on Wednesday pending an investigation. Pickup claimed his messages were “twisted out of context” and that he was unaware of the more extreme posts, including calls for genocide and stockpiling weapons to attack “lefties” and “migrants”. He described his comment about Starmer as a “jokey comment” but admitted it was “poor judgment”. He said he left the group this week when screenshots emerged.
Labour councillor Samara Barnes called for Pickup’s resignation, stating: “If people are suggesting we should be having an Islam genocide, this is domestic terrorism.” Lancashire county council confirmed Pickup remains a councillor, sitting as an independent pending investigation.
