Reform UK wannabe’s political bid ends before it starts

A racist post made by Lawrence McKenzie-Mockridge has emerged, although he insists it is not the reason he has quit his May election bid.

By Sarah Ward

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A Northampton man set to become Reform UK’s candidate for Weston Favell has dropped out of the political arena at the same time as a racist social media post has emerged.

Lawrence McKenzie-Mockridge, had seemingly been chosen as the Reform UK candidate to try and win the Weston Favell and Abington Vale seat on West Northamptonshire Council at the upcoming May elections. He had created a social media profile declaring himself the candidate and also had attended the recent Reform UK convention with other party members at Sywell.

But that political profile has now been deleted at the same time as a social media post McKenzie-Mockridge made on St George’s Day in 2011 emerged.

In the post he made racist and hateful comments about Muslims. NN Journal has seen the post but has decided not to publish it due to its offensiveness.

When we contacted former gym manager McKenzie-Mockridge, he admitted he had been selected as a Reform UK candidate but had chosen to stand down ‘for another reason’.

He said he appreciated his 2011 post was ‘not an acceptable post’ and said it was ‘clearly [from] a much different time’ and he did not have those feelings today.

The political parties across Northants are currently finalising their candidates ahead of nominations opening for candidates on Monday.

Candidates have until April 2 to put in their papers and the final lists of all taking part in the election will be published by the two unitary councils on April 3. The elections take place on Thursday, May 1.

NN Journal contacted Reform UK’s national media office about McKenzie-Mockridge’s racist post and received the following response:

“Nominations for May’s local elections have not yet opened therefore no-one is officially a candidate for Reform UK yet.

“We set and expect the highest standards from our candidates, therefore Mr McKenzie-Mockridge will never be a candidate for Reform UK.”

However last month McKenzie-Mockridge posted photos of himself with deputy leader Richard Tice. It is unclear how he got through the vetting process, as Northants coordinator Sean Leaver said recently the party had tightened up its vetting processes.

The other more established political parties have been apprehensive about how Nigel Farage’s party will do in the local elections, after a national poll had them as currently the most popular in the country.

However in recent days the party has become embroiled in an internal fallout, which could affect its performance at the upcoming elections.

MP Rupert Lowe has been reported by the party to the police for alleged threats of violence against their chairman Zia Yusuf and Lowe has in turn has accused the party’s leadership of making false claims in retaliation for his criticism of Farage.

Northants now has three Reform UK councillors, who are all former Conservatives. Martin Griffiths, Ken Harrington and Kirk Harrison have all defected to the party in the past few months.