Reform UK suspends Kirklees councillor Dave Rowan over 2019 social media posts

Reform UK has suspended Kirklees councillor Dave Rowan from the party pending investigation after social media posts from 2019 surfaced appearing to show him calling for former Commons Speaker John Bercow to be hanged, alongside homophobic and Islamophobic statements. A Reform UK spokesman said in a statement: "Cllr Rowan has been suspended from Reform UK pending investigation" (BBC News).

The posts, made on X (then Twitter) in 2019, predate Rowan's election as a councillor. In one post, Rowan appeared to write "Hang the Dwarf" in relation to a post about John Bercow, who was Commons Speaker at the time (BBC News). The Independent reported the story under Rowan's full name, David Rowan (The Independent).

Further posts from the same period appeared to contain homophobic remarks. In one, Rowan appeared to write: "As a parent not at school.. I don't beleive gays should have kids full stop.." (BBC News). In another, he appeared to post: "Too many muslims mi thinks.. Make sure you take a marker pen Good luck." (BBC News). The misspellings are reproduced as they appeared in the posts.

A Reform spokesperson confirmed that Rowan had been suspended pending investigation, though no further detail on the scope or timeline of that investigation has been provided (BBC News).

Kirklees Council covers a metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire. Rowan's suspension from the party does not automatically remove him from his council seat; under standard local government procedure, a suspension from a political party is a matter of internal party discipline, separate from any statutory disqualification process. He remains, in formal terms, a sitting councillor unless and until he resigns or is removed through due process.

The posts date from a period before Rowan held elected office. Reform UK, then operating under previous iterations of its branding, was not the party under which Rowan was elected. The party's current leadership has not commented beyond the brief confirmation of suspension.

This is not the first time Reform UK has faced questions about the vetting of its candidates and elected representatives. The party has previously suspended members over social media activity, and the speed of action in Rowan's case follows a now-established pattern: suspension pending investigation is announced once offensive material is brought to the party's attention, with fuller disciplinary processes following.

The broader context here is one of ongoing scrutiny of party vetting procedures across the political spectrum. Social media histories have become a routine vector for damaging revelations about elected representatives, particularly those elected for newer or less established parties where candidate selection infrastructure may be less robust. Posts made years before a candidate's selection can surface at any point during their tenure, creating reputational risk that parties manage through immediate suspension followed by internal process.

For Reform UK specifically, each such case tests the party's stated commitment to disciplining members whose past conduct falls short of expected standards. The party's handling of Rowan, a councillor rather than a parliamentary candidate, also illustrates that vetting challenges extend beyond Westminster-facing selections into local government tiers where oversight mechanisms can be thinner.

Rowan has not publicly responded to the suspension or to the content of the posts as reported. The investigation by Reform UK remains ongoing.