Reform UK councillor, George Madgwick, was found to have mishandled residents' data but will face basically no consequences

Two separate images of Nigel Farage (left) and George Madgwick, of Reform UK, with his hands folded in a shirt, looking professional

Reform UK councillor, George Madgwick, has landed himself in serious controversy having been found to have breached data protection regulations.

This is far more detrimental for the Portsmouth councillor than wanting to cancel mince pies as we reported last December.

Portsmouth councillor ‘breached data rules to help promote Reform and a city restaurant’, regulator findshttps://t.co/ES6lRTSQxW

— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) July 5, 2026

Reform councillor misused people’s personal data

The complaint against Madgwick was raised by Portsmouth local, Scott Alexander. Alexander completed a Portsmouth Independent Party (PIP) survey in late 2024 (the party Madgwick belonged to before joining Reform UK). As a result, the councillor had access to Alexander’s phone number and email address.

Alexander would later receive:

  • Promotional emails for a restaurant run by Madgwick’s partner Emily Strudwick (Reform’s current leader on the council)
  • Text messages on ‘breaking news’ linking to Madgwick’s social media posts (sent after he defected to Reform)

Alexander had not given permission for any of this. When he challenged Madgwick online, his posts were deleted.

After confirming that the original disclaimer did not cover any of the above, Alexander would note:

The survey received over 4,000 responses, which means that, de facto, Cllr Madgwick is misusing a dataset of over 4,000 Portsmouth residents to pursue his own political agenda.

He thinks he can get away with not following the law – it will catch up with him.

Alexander made two complaints, with the Portsmouth News reporting:

Mr Alexander later submitted two complaints under the councillor code of conduct. The first related to an Instagram livestream in which Cllr Madgwick published the confidential names of people who had made complaints against him.

In December 2025, the council’s monitoring officer found the code had been breached, saying publicly naming the complainants, otherwise referred to as doxxing, was “indicative of a bullying and or hectoring attitude”.

George Madgwick busted

Alexander also lodged a complaint alleging misuse of data, which was upheld, with a referral made to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). On 30 June, the ICO upheld Alexander’s complaints, finding that Madgwick:

  • Had “not complied with their data protection obligations”
  • Had failed to keep personal data secure as he should have done under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)

In response, Alexander said:

I am very pleased that all of my complaints have been upheld. The ‘punishment’ for such offences is rather light, particularly as the survey data set could very well have been used to inform Reform UK’s local campaigning and marketing spend for the local election, as well as the aggravating conduct of Councillor Madgwick himself.

The ‘punishment’ in question is that the ICO wrote to Madgwick to advise him how he can avoid making the same mistake in future. An entirely toothless response, in other words.

Madgwick, meanwhile, has vowed to clear his name.

The ICO failed to contact me to respond to the complaint. I’ve written to the ICO to complain and ask for a review as the information submitted by Scott Alexander was inaccurate. I have clear evidence that no breach occurred and the ICO will go in my favour once they allow me to submit this evidence.

We’d advise signing up to Madgwick’s email list to keep up with the latest, but that might not be the best idea given his track record.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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