Skip to content

Reform admits 'mistakes' after candidate's Sturgeon post

Getty Images Richard TiceGetty Images
Reform UK chairman Richard Tice says his party is "telling it like it is"

The Reform UK chairman has admitted to "mistakes" in the party's selection process after its candidate in Orkney and Shetland suggested Nicola Sturgeon should be shot.

Robert Smith posted numerous insults about prominent women on social media between 2016 and last year, The Times has reported.

BBC Scotland has asked Mr Smith for comment.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Reform chairman Richard Tice described such insults as "appalling".

The party has been forced to drop several candidates due to offensive comments, while two have defected to the Conservatives due to concerns about bigotry among other candidates.

election banner

The Times reported that Mr Smith made several insulting comments about Ms Sturgeon, as well as author and activist JK Rowling and Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank.

In 2016, he shared an article about Ms Sturgeon in a post about political leaders being shot. "Why not start with this b****?” he asked.

Mr Smith also called the former first minister a "b****" in two further posts in 2020.

He used the same insult against Ms Rowling in another post from that year and later called Ms Lagarde “head b**** of the globalists”.

In other posts, the Reform candidate used slurs against gay and lesbian people and said the rainbow symbol used to support the NHS during the pandemic was like “the new swastika”.

Getty Images Nicola Sturgeon Getty Images
Nicola Sturgeon was targeted in the online posts

Asked about the social media posts, Mr Tice told the Today programme they were "obviously appalling, absolutely appalling".

He said: “We’re a new political party, we’re growing fast. Of course, like anybody, we make some mistakes.

"The thing is we admit them and we move on and we change and we learn from them. That’s what we’re doing.”

Mr Tice added: “People actually appreciate the fact that there is a new party out there that is telling it like it is."

Reform leader Nigel Farage has previously said "bad apples" will be removed from the party, which he said had been "let down" by a vetting company hired to assess candidates.