Lib Dems call for Reform council candidate to be suspended over “sickening” racist comments

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

The Liberal Democrats have called on Nigel Farage to suspend Redcar council candidate Michael Manning after racist online comments.

Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper has written to Nigel Farage to urge him to kick out Reform UK’s candidate for Redcar, Mike Manning.

The council candidate directed sickening insults at Jewish and Muslim communities, writing that “there is something about circumcision that goes to their heads”. He repeatedly made reference to “traditional stuffed chimpanzee” in comments on posts celebrating Kwanzaa, a festival marking African-American heritage and culture. Manning described the Nazis as “peace-loving” and “democratically elected” online.

Daisy Cooper MP, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, said: 

“Nigel Farage must suspend Reform’s council candidate for Redcar, Mike Manning, who has hurled such sickening insults at Jewish and Muslim communities.

“Farage seems happy for this kind of person to represent him in public office. He must kick out his candidate and make clear these kinds of awful views have no place in British politics.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor

First reported by LBC: https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/nigel-farage-urged-suspend-reform-mike-manning-5HjdRYx_2/

Please see text of Daisy Cooper's letter below. 

Dear Mr Farage,

I’m writing to you to ask that you suspend your candidate for the Redcar council by-election, Mike Manning, with immediate effect. 

Mr Manning’s recent social media posts display views which are abhorrent and utterly out of place in twenty-first century Britain. Online comments from just last year by your candidate equate Universal Credit with “the jizya tax”, telling viewers that “They are all on it”. He invented a dish, “the traditional stuffed chimpanzee”, to cite in comments on posts celebrating Kwanzaa, a festival marking African-American heritage and culture.

He has also directed sickening insults at Jewish and Muslim communities, writing that “there is something about circumcision that goes to their heads”. I was disgusted to read his description of the Nazis as “peace-loving” and “democratically elected”. These kinds of racist, antisemitic, xenophobic beliefs have no place in our politics.

You have previously pledged to root out racism in your party, stating in 2024 that Reform UK “doesn’t want extremists” or “bigots”, and that candidates from that date would be “rigorously” vetted. Despite those claims, you have welcomed Mr Manning into your party and appear to be happy for him to represent you in public office.

Did you vet Mr Manning? If so, did you decide his awful beliefs were acceptable to you? If not, will you accept that you lied to the British public in promising that your party would research those individuals representing Reform UK in public life?

Mr Manning’s remarks are unconscionable. I urge you to suspend him immediately from Reform and make clear these racist views have no place in your party.

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Sincerely,

Daisy Cooper MP