Stuart Prior, who apparently celebrated Punjabi and Sikh women being raped, has won a spot on Essex county council as well as Rochford District Council despite his racist comments
A Reform candidate exposed for spreading racist bile has swept to a double victory in Nigel Farage’s backyard.
Stuart Prior, who apparently celebrated Punjabi and Sikh women being raped, has won county and district council seats in Essex. His sickening comments only months ago were revealed in a joint investigation by the Mirror with anti-racism group Hope Not Hate (HnH). Reform has ended the Tory party’s quarter of a century control of Essex County Council, with Prior among those elected. The 54-year-old property director also won in a seat on Rochford District Council.
Reform said last week it was “looking into” Prior’s posts – with the party also facing pressure to take action. And today a Labour MP asked Reform’s leader Farage, who represents Clacton, in Essex: “Will you immediately suspend him from your party”? Meanwhile, HnH’s Director of Campaigns Georgie Laming said: “Among all the Reform UK candidates we have exposed, Stuart Prior’s language was some of the most horrifically racist. He should have been swiftly expelled from the party.”
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When we last week confronted Prior, who also declared white people “the master race”, he denied being racist. On his “master race” tweet, Prior claimed: “I don’t recall that at all, blimey.”
Read back his tweet saying “good” and “reap it” in reference to women being raped, Prior said: “No, this isn’t me.” Prior’s X account is thought to have been deleted earlier this year. He has been elected as a Rochford District councillor, winning 911 votes to take Sweyne Park and Grange ward. Prior separately stood in Rayleigh West in a bid to get a county council seat, winning with 2,404 backers.
In response to a tweet questioning whether white women should be allowed to wear braids, Prior wrote in December: “As the master race, they can do as they please.” In October, Your Party MP Zarah Sultana tweeted referring to a woman of Punjabi heritage being raped in a racist attack and a Sikh woman suffering the same fate, both in the West Midlands, adding: “These horrifying attacks show how racism and misogyny feed each other – fuelled by the rise of fascism and hate.” Prior reposted the tweet, writing: “good.reap it”.
This week, it emerged four Labour MPs in the West Midlands had written to Reform’s leader in Sandwell, a metropolitan borough in the county. Sarah Coombes, Antonia Bance, Gurinder Singh Josan and Alex Ballinger said: “The community in Sandwell was shaken to its core last year after a Sikh woman was raped in a racially aggravated attack. It has now emerged that a Reform candidate in Essex, Stuart Prior, has celebrated this attack.”
They added: “Will you, as the leader of the Reform party in Sandwell, condemn this disgusting behaviour and will you write to Nigel Farage requesting Stuart Prior be immediately withdrawn as a Reform party candidate?” And, in response to Prior’s district council victory, Coombes wrote to Reform’s leader on X saying: “Will you immediately suspend him from your party @Nigel_Farage ?”
When put to him by the Mirror that he had identified his house by sharing a picture of his dog, Prior confirmed he had one of the animals, adding: “I don’t recall these tweets…” Another image he posted of a Union flag shows part of his property. Read a tweet in which he had referred to immigrants as a “cancer”, Prior said: “This looks likely something that’s been kind of created against me.” Reform, which last week said it was “looking into” the posts, has been contacted for comment over Prior’s election victories.