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Reform UK has suspended one of its councillors as the party investigates him over alleged online comments about wanting to kill Keir Starmer.
The suspension came after the party was presented with details indicating that John Allen, a Reform UK Northumberland county councillor, had posted comments online about wanting to shoot the prime minister.
Nigel Farage, the party’s leader, last week challenged police to arrest social media users who he said had been using TikTok to call for him to be shot.
The move to suspend Allen was taken after Reform was presented with details following an investigation by the antifascist group Hope not Hate.
A Reform UK spokesperson said on Friday: “Cllr Allen has been suspended pending investigation.”
Allen, who is also an appointee to the Northumbria police and crime panel and sits on a number of committees, neither confirmed nor denied that he was behind the YouTube account @johnallen7807 when he was asked by the Guardian.
That account has made repeated calls for Starmer to be killed. In recent years, it has posted comments indicating it is likely to be Allen’s account, such as an announcement last month that the handle user had been elected to Northumberland county council for Reform.
Under videos about the arrest this month of the writer Graham Linehan by armed police at Heathrow over posts on X about transgender issues, the account stated: “Five armed police??? I’d shoot Starmer myself if I had the weapon and opportunity!”
Under a video about the conviction last month of an asylum seeker for sexual assault, it said: “I can’t wait to see Starmer swinging from a lamp post.”
Allen said he would not comment on “private information”, adding that he sometimes watched YouTube videos and commented on them, and that he believed that freedom of speech was being restricted.
The development comes amid concern over the increasingly violent language finding its way into British political life.
Last weekend, a man was arrested after allegedly being videoed at the far-right rally in London on Saturday threatening to kill Keir Starmer. An investigation was launched in connection with the video, filmed at the event organised by the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.
Separately, Downing Street condemned “dangerous and inflammatory” language used at the event by Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and X. Appearing via a live link, Musk told a crowd of protesters that “violence is coming” and “you either fight back or you die”.
