Ben Rowe posted Islamophobic, antisemitic and racist memes. Reform said it was 'investigating', so how come he's now a sitting councillor?

Nigel Farage and Reform councillor Ben Rowe

Reform — In the runup to the local elections, political parties and media outlets ganged up to accuse the Green Party of ‘antisemitism’. These allegations largely boiled down to the fact that the Greens and their leader Zack Polanski opposed Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Opposing the murderous actions of a foreign regime is something which any British person should freely be able to do; especially when successive governments have used our taxes to support said regime.

While the establishment smeared the Greens, Reform UK was quietly lining up racist local election candidates and activists. And the reason they were able to do this ‘quietly’ is because the British media chose to ignore what was happening in plain sight:

Ask yourself why you heard so much about so many Green Party local candidates and Green Party antisemitism but not as much about guys like this and Reform antisemitism. https://t.co/QGNBWgc921

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 9, 2026

Ben Rowe

On 23 April, Hope not Hate reported on then-candidate Ben Rowe:

Since Zia Yusuf has assured us that Reform UK has “the best vetting in the country”, is it safe to assume that they looked at Rowe’s Facebook account and were happy with the following posts?

For those out of the know:

  • The Vlad the Impaler meme is a reference to the fact that Vlad III – a.k.a. ‘Vlad Dracula’ – fought against the Muslim Ottoman Empire (he himself was Christian Orthodox).
  • The cat meme is based on the racist American stereotype that Black people like fried chicken.
  • ‘Globalist’ is a term which is popular with Nazis and the far-far-right, so ‘Globalist zion cult’ gives you an idea of the sort of message boards he’s frequenting.

For further evidence of Rowe’s antisemitism, see this:

We should note that the Canary is very critical of Zionists (or ‘zoinists’, as Rowe refers to them). When we say ‘Zionists’ though, we don’t mean ‘Jews’; we mean people who support the concept of Israel as an expansionist colonial project that serves as America’s foothold in the Middle East.

Many of the worst Zionists are actually American evangelical Christians, but regardless of what religion they belong to, these people aren’t ‘flooding the west with islamists’.

Reform unvetted

On the topic of vetting, Rowe is far from the only candidate who seemed to escape vetting.

The argument that Reform UK aren’t vetting is strong given that this unsavoury candidate’s Facebook account is public

Via @willem_moore_uk https://t.co/RdiaKoUyEm

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) April 4, 2026

Either Reform have stopped vetting candidates, or they’ve simply decided to accept the absolute dregs of humanity

Via @willem_moore_uk https://t.co/uEvi3d55XI

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) April 4, 2026

Reform clearly aren’t vetting their candidates, because they’ve just signed up a guy who thinks that Christmas is Satanic

Via @willem_moore_uk https://t.co/BgJYb6J5S7

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) April 29, 2026

After the Hope not Hate article came out, Reform did actually promise to “investigate” Rowe. As the BBC reported:

The leader of Reform UK on Plymouth City Council, Steve Ricketts, said the party was “thoroughly investigating” the matter.

Ricketts added:

There is a process and that will be followed in this case – I can’t comment further than that at this time.

Rowe himself would post to social media:

This post may be my last. My bike has been vandalised costing me hundreds, I’ve had things posted, years ago, taken out of context.

I just want to be a valued, contributing member of society and what better way than to be a councillor for my ward, delivering on issues your tax money goes to?

This wouldn’t be the last that Plymouth heard of Rowe, however, as he would become a councillor on Thursday 7 May.

So what happened to the investigation?

Because it seems like it meant nothing, and Rowe was just allowed to run anyway.

Not shocked

We’re not surprised by any of this, by the way, because of things like this:

Mainstream media have spent days calling @ZackPolanski an antisemite; why are they silent on Reform’s failure to suspend an actual antisemite?

By @willem_moore_uk https://t.co/VlrTrc7R3R

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) May 4, 2026

Remember, though, it’s the people who oppose genocide who are the actual antisemites – not the lovely Übermensch in Reform UK.

Featured image via BBC

By Willem Moore

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