Reform UK has been mocked after announcing their latest defection to the party – a police and crime commissioner who is an expert on ghosts, aliens and UFOs.
Rupert Matthews, who holds the post in Leicestershire and Rutland, was introduced on Monday as having joined the party from the Conservatives, breaking a 40-year membership.
Before being elected in 2021, he served two years as a European parliament member for the Tories. He has also written a number of books about ghost sightings, UFOs, cryptozoology and other paranormal subjects.
Rupert Matthews speaks at a Reform UK press conference in London (PA)
Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience focusing on legendary animals, such as the Sasquatch, in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence.
Responding to the announcement, the prime minister’s press secretary said: “Their big defection is very interested in the fantastical and the unexplained. It’s no surprise he’s added Reform’s fiscal plans to that list.”
Meanwhile, a Labour source said: “It’s not just the ghost of Tory past that is swelling the Reform ranks. Their latest recruit Rupert Matthews peddles alien conspiracy theories and believes the removal of abortion rights overseas is a ‘triumph’ for democracy.”
During a press conference at the party’s London HQ on Monday, unveiling the move, Mr Matthews took aim at the criminal justice system, saying the “dark heart of wokeness” needed to be removed, as well as accusing politicians in Britain of taking inspiration from “failed states” for their policies.
“It’s almost as if they’ve looked at countries like Lebanon and Libya, the policies that have led to them becoming failed states and thought, ‘that looks good, let’s try that here in Britain’”, he said.
“The self-serving, self-entitled liberal elite who have let our country down time after time after time are now on notice. Their day is almost done. Be they Conservative or Labour governments, everyone knows our politicians have failed us all.
“They have let this country down. They have let the British people down. Enough. Now is the time for Reform.”
He also said police officers were all too often working with “one hand tied behind their back”.
“I daily face a fight against crime. I see ordinary, hard-working people burgled, robbed and mugged. Shoplifting is getting out of control. Antisocial behaviour is turning too many of our town centres into an apocalyptic wasteland of lawless Britain.”
Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage and (from left) George Finch, leader of Warwickshire County Council; Rupert Matthews, police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire; Colin Sutton, Reform’s policing and crime adviser; and former prison governor Vanessa Frake-Harris, the party’s new justice adviser (PA Wire)
Reform also announced that a retired prison governor of Wormwood Scrubs, Vanessa Frake-Harris, had joined the party and would be contributing to its law and order task force.
Ms Frake-Harris, who joined the prison service in 1986, detailed increases in escapes, attacks on prison officers and increases of drugs, weapons and mobile phone finds in the last year.
She said: “Successive governments, Conservative and Labour, have driven the prison service to its knees through lack of investment, support and an unwillingness to allow people who know what they are doing to get the job done.”
She continued: “Our prisons are in a crisis caused by Labour and the Conservatives. What have their solutions been? They have let 10,000 prisoners out of jail early. To let criminals out of jail before they even serve their full sentence is a disgrace.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “It’s farcical that Farage can’t say what his policies are, how much they would cost, or how they would even work. Reform aren’t serious and don’t have a clue as to how they would address the challenges facing working people.”
Reform UK has been contacted for comment.
