Overview
- Reform UK confirmed on Wednesday that Tom Pickup was suspended pending an internal investigation, after serving as the council’s lead member for resources and finance.
- Lancashire County Council said he remains in office but will sit as an independent while inquiries proceed.
- Pickup acknowledged being in the group, described his posts as jokey and taken out of context, denied seeing or supporting calls for a “mass Islam genocide”, and said he has left the chat.
- Screenshots attributed to Pickup show insults directed at the prime minister and a minister, support for “mass deportations”, and a claim that Reform is privately tougher on immigration than it states publicly.
- Reports identify the chat as organized by a right‑wing activist known as “Missus Kent” with links to Britain First and Tommy Robinson supporters, and Labour councillor Samara Barnes has reported Pickup to the standards watchdog and called for his resignation.