A Reform UK candidate has WON a seat on West Northamptonshire Council despite sexist and racist tweets from his old Twitter account.

Reform UK stormed through West Northamptonshire at the local elections on Thursday (May 1), beating contenders to take a majority administration on the council.

Reform ended the day with 42 councillors out of the 76 spaces on the unitary, with the Conservatives trailing behind as the biggest opposition party with just 17—down from their previous 57 elected members before polls opened on Thursday.

One of the Reform councillors who won their seat is Ronald Firman, who was voted onto West Northants Council by just 11 votes on Friday (May 2) after winning one of the three seats up for grabs in the Hunsbury ward.

The X account was active between 2017 and 2018, when a series of offensive posts were made. Image: @RonFirman2 on X

placeholder image — The X account was active between 2017 and 2018, when a series of offensive posts were made. Image: @RonFirman2 on X

Councillor Firman won 1184 votes (11%) and was elected alongside fellow Reform UK member Glenn Butcher (1249 votes) and Conservative Councillor Pinder Chauhan (1332 votes).

Firman’s win comes despite sexist and racist tweets from an old account of his resurfacing just before the election.

Reform UK chose not to comment on the contents of Firman’s Twitter account, found in the name of their Hunsbury candidate.

Firman made offensive posts on the social media platform Twitter, now known as X, between 2017 and 2018. Reform UK has declined to comment on the tweets.

Mr Firman, who is also a parish councillor for East Hunsbury, has not responded to requests from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). The account does not appear to have been used since February 2018.

Reform UK was asked by the LDRS if they were aware of the X account held by the candidate and what their position was on the content that was shared publicly. The national party said it would not be commenting on the tweets.

Party leader Nigel Farage previously told the LDRS during his visit to Northamptonshire that the ‘professionalisation’ of the party meant all candidates standing in the county had been vetted and he was confident that they had “great people standing.”

At the time of publication, Mr Firman’s Reform UK candidate Facebook profile is still active. His new Reform UK X account has been made private in recent weeks.

Since winning his seat, Chronicle and Echo has approached Firman and Reform for comment.