Jimmy Savile a 'working-class hero', insists Reform candidate

Reform has had to deal with all manner of crackpots within its ranks during its short lifespan, including racists, homophobe and plain old bigots. Now it has a new strand of oddball thought to deal with: Jimmy Savile trutherism.

Nigel Farage’s party has suspended a candidate for the upcoming local elections after a series of public social media posts defending the predatory sex offender came to light. Stephen Hartley, standing for Oxfordshire Council, had described the tracksuit-clad criminal as a “working-class hero”, saying: “Saville was one, Putin is another. So they make up horrible lies about them and let the media do the rest.”

After being contacted by his local newspaper, the Oxford Mail, Hartley then doubled down in his support for Savile, saying: “I stand by my claims that Jimmy Savile was a working-class hero. These allegations were never proven and really how it came out after his death was the worst thing.” He added the “campaign” against Savile was “not a true reflection of who he was”.

Now it has emerged that championing a man believed to have committed hundreds of sexual offences is a step too far even for Farage’s merry band of kooks. A spokesperson for the party told the BBC: “Mr Hartley has been suspended as a member and is now not a Reform UK candidate. We have subsequently withdrawn all support for his candidacy.”

It might be too late, though, to change the election slogan which Reform plastered all over their recent national rally. It is the now rather unfortunate ‘Reform Will Fix It’.