Reform UK candidate said UK ‘should have been neutral on Hitler’

Basit Mahmood 

Yesterday
Left Foot Forward 

It comes as Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, prepares to unveil the party’s manifesto.

A Reform UK candidate posted in a blog that the country would be “far better” if it had “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality” instead of fighting the Nazis in World War Two, leading to widespread outrage and condemnation.

It has been revealed by the BBC that Ian Gribbin, the party’s candidate in Bexhill and Battle made the posts in 2022. He also wrote online that women were the “sponging gender” and should be “deprived of health care”.

The BBC reports: “In posts from 2022 on the Unherd magazine website, seen by the BBC, he said Winston Churchill was “abysmal” and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

It goes on to add: “In July 2022, Mr Gribbin posted on the Unherd website: “Britain would be in a far better state today had we taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality…. but oh no Britain’s warped mindset values weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people.”

It comes as Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, prepares to unveil the party’s manifesto.

Gribbin also made disgraceful remarks about women on Unherd’s message board. He wrote: “Do you think you could actually work and pay for it all too like good citizens?

“Men pay 80% of tax – women spend 80% of tax revenue. On aggregate as a group you only take from society.

“Less complaining please from the ‘sponging gender’.”

In December 2021, he wrote female soldiers “almost made me wretch (sic)” and were a “total liability”.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward