Campaigners have called on a West Northamptonshire councillor and his party to apologise for ‘sexist conduct’ on social media.

The Northants Women’s Empowerment Group has highlighted recent posts by Reform councillor Ivan Dabbs on X.

Councillor Dabbs, who represents Deanshanger and Paulerspury, responded to what appeared to be a post from a bot account designed to generate engagement. The post featured an AI-generated image of a blonde woman holding a sign reading ‘I have a head but no brain. What am I?’ Councillor Dabbs responded: ‘My next wife’.

In another post, an X user posts a picture of a woman with her middle finger up to the camera with the caption ‘women deal with periods pregnancy menopause [what] do men deal with?’. Councillor Dabbs responded: “Answer to your question is. YOU!”

Here are the recent posts on X by Reform Councillor Ivan Dabbs (right) on X.

placeholder image — Here are the recent posts on X by Reform Councillor Ivan Dabbs (right) on X.

The Chronicle & Echo went to Councillor Dabbs for comment. He did not respond. The Chron also went to the leader of West Northamptonshire Council (WNC), Councillor Mark Arnull, and the national Reform UK party for comment. Neither have responded.

The Northants Women’s Empowerment Group recently called out the vice-chairman of WNC, Reform councillor Peter York, for his comments about ‘women staying in the kitchen’, made at an International Women’s day event. Councillor York later apologised.

Now the group has written to Councillor Arnull asking him to investigate the tweets by Councillor Dabbs.

“We are living in an era marked by the rise of a toxic ‘manosphere’ that promotes the marginalisation and harassment of women. In such a climate, it is vital that our elected representatives set a positive example for society rather than adding to the problem with ‘tone deaf’ and discriminatory rhetoric,” the group said.

The group asked the leader to demonstrate a commitment to protecting the dignity of women in West Northamptonshire by taking action over the comments and asked him to outline what specific disciplinary actions he will now take.

It is not the first time that Councillor Dabbs has been highlighted for his social media content.

In May last year, the Local Democracy Reporter Service reported that an X account in Councillor Dabbs’ name was found to have shared tweets from Britain First, a political party campaigning on an anti-immigration platform. The account also contained other offensive posts. Again, Reform UK declined to comment at the time.

WNC was also approached for comment on the most recent messages on X. Chief executive Martin Henry responded and stated: “The council strongly condemns any comments that cause offence to anyone within our community and is committed to equality, dignity and respect for all.”

Earlier this month, Martin Henry apologised for the comments made by Reform councillor Peter York.