Royal Mail postman ‘writes “racists” onto Reform marketing campaign leaflets’
A Royal Mail postman appeared to write the word ‘racists’ on Reform UK leaflets before posting them through letterboxes.
Footage taken by a doorbell camera appears to show the postman using a marker pen to scribble on the election leaflet. He then posts the leaflets through two different doors.
The election leaflet shows Reform leader Nigel Farage with the party’s chairman Richard Tice.
It is understood the leaflets were circulated on behalf of Reform candidate Craig Birtwistle, who is standing in the constituency of Worsley and Eccles in Greater Manchester.
The incident has prompted anger from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who called for an urgent explanation from the British postal service.
Footage appears to show a Royal Mail postman writing the word ‘racists’ on Reform UK election leaflets
Footage from a doorbell camera also appears to show the postman posting the letters
Nigel Farage said he hoped that Royal Mail ‘were taking the matter seriously’
Taking to X/Twitter, Mr Farage said: ‘I hope that Royal Mail are taking this matter very seriously.’
A Reform UK spokesman said: ‘This video and picture appear to show blatant criminal damage by a Royal Mail employee in an attempt to interfere with the democratic process.
‘The Royal Mail should have no problem identifying him and taking disciplinary action and we would expect the police to show some interest as well.’
A Royal Mail spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We take our role in elections very seriously and will investigate any incident or allegation of election material being defaced.
‘We are aware of the video and have been conducting immediate enquiries. It’s our priority to ensure all candidate mail is delivered to a high level of service.’
Nigel Farage (pictured) said he would ‘never, ever defend’ Russian President Vladimir Putin
It comes after the Reform UK leader said he would ‘never, ever defend’ Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he ramped up his row with former prime minister Boris Johnson.
At a campaign rally in Kent on Monday, Mr Farage unveiled a blown-up poster of the i newspaper’s front page from May 10 2016 with the headline ‘Boris blames EU for war in Ukraine’.
On Friday Mr Farage told the BBC‘s The Panorama Interviews programme that ‘we provoked this war’, in reference to countries in eastern Europe signing up to Nato and the European Union, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Writing in the Telegraph on Saturday, he urged readers not to ‘blame’ him for ‘telling the truth about Putin’s war’.
Mr Johnson shared the article on X, formerly Twitter, calling Mr Farage’s views ‘morally repugnant’.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson (pictured) lashed out at the Reform UK leader after he doubled down on his comments that the West was to blame for provoking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Referring to the Telegraph article, he wrote: ‘This is nauseating historical drivel and more Kremlin propaganda.’
In Kent on Monday, Mr Farage said he had been ‘more far-sighted’ in predicting a war in Ukraine, telling the crowd: ‘This has been turned into ‘Farage makes outrageous statement‘, ‘Farage defends Putin’ – well, I’ve done none of those things.
‘I would never, ever defend Putin and I think his behaviour in Ukraine and elsewhere has been reprehensible.
‘But if we’re going to think towards a peace at some time in the not too distant future, perhaps it might be helpful to understand what went wrong in the first place.’
As he unveiled the poster of the headline referring to Mr Johnson from the top deck of the Reform battle bus, Mr Farage said he was ‘alone’ in predicting the war in Ukraine, adding: ‘I can’t take those words away and nor would I want to.’
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking at the Mercure Maidstone Great Danes Hotel in Maidstone Kent
Turning his fire on the former prime minister, Mr Farage said: ‘Well, perhaps it’s Boris Johnson that’s morally repugnant and not me, I don’t know. But can you see the sheer level of hypocrisy? Can you see the nonsense of all of this?’
He added: ‘This man will go down as the worst prime minister of modern times. A man who betrayed an 80-seat majority. Who opened the door to mass immigration? Boris Johnson. Who betrayed the will of Brexit voters? It was Boris Johnson. He pretended to be a Conservative but he governed as a Green.’
The Reform UK leader went on: ‘There’s been precious little debate on defence, precious little debate about the state of our armed forces, precious little debate about how little we still do in this country for our veterans, and precious, precious almost no debate on foreign policy.’
‘A couple of years back we would have thought war on a global scale was inconceivable, but we now all, don’t we, harbour that doubt and that worry at the back of our minds?’
Home Secretary James Cleverly accused Mr Farage of ‘echoing Putin’s vile justification for the brutal invasion of Ukraine’ and shadow defence secretary John Healey said Mr Farage is ‘a Putin apologist who should never be trusted with our nation’s security’.
However, the Reform leader got the loudest cheers from his supporters as he discussed the party’s defining policy area – immigration.
