Reform UK Candidate Denies Fake Racist Post

0:00On April 8th, a reform UK candidate in Bolton is hitting back at claims he posted a racist comment on Facebook years ago. Derek Bullock, running for the Holton Ward in the local elections on May 7th, says a screenshot showing a nasty remark after the 2017. Manchester Arena bombing is totally fake. He's denying it flat out and insists he reported it to the police. Back in April 2023, Bullock was set to run as a conservative, but the party kicked him out right when nominations dropped. He stayed on the ballot as an independent, won the seat he'd hailed since 2019, then lost it in the May 2024 elections. Now he switched to reform UK for another shot. The screenshot popped up again this week in a piece by the group Hope Not Hate, right after reform confirmed him as their guy. Bullock's been clear before that it's fabricated, and folks in this community know him as a trustee at the local Asian Elders Resource Center. From UK's backing him hard, saying he wasn't booty from the conservatives over that post,

1:01and highlighting his community work. There have been other past Facebook dust-ups too, like sharing an anti-Muslim article in March 2020 and commenting on rising Muslim child. Numbers back in February 2015. Policing greater Manchester, guy reached out to about Bullock's fake post claim, so we'll see if they dig into it as the election heats up. Stay tuned for how this plays out in Holton.