Nearly one in ten Reform candidates are Facebook 'friends' with fascist leader Gary Raikes - as one election hopeful claimed Britain would be 'far better' if it had 'taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality'

Nearly one in ten Reform UK candidates is a 'friend' on Facebook with British fascist leader Gary Raikes, it was reported yesterday.

Mr Raikes founded the New British Union (NBU), which has called for a 'fascist revolution' and sees parliamentary democracy as an 'obstruction' to establishing a dictatorship. 

He formed the NBU in the image of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, with activists calling themselves 'blackshirts'. 

Yesterday the Times reported that at least 41 of Reform's parliamentary candidates in the General Election are friends with Mr Raikes on Facebook.

It comes after Ian Gribbin, the Reform candidate for Bexhill and Battle, apologised for claiming that Britain would be 'far better' if it had 'taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality', instead of fighting the Nazis in the Second World War. 

Mr Raikes' Twitter/X account has reportedly shared Islamophobic and xenophobic material and images of men giving Nazi salutes.

Several Reform candidates have stood down over social media activity. 

A party spokesman said: 'Millions of people who are struggling want journalists to discuss policy and ideas, not juvenile gotcha identity politics. 

'We take all allegations very seriously and will take appropriate action after a thorough internal investigation.' 

The party said it was 'no crime to follow people with whom one has profound disagreements'.