The chair of the Reform UK branch in Brighton and Hove plans to stand down to focus on his work commitments.
But Gary Farmer, who runs a language school, said that he would stand for Reform at the local elections in 2027.
Mr Farmer said: “After careful consideration, I have decided to step down from my role as chairman of the branch after one year’s service due to increased professional commitments which no longer allow me to dedicate the time and focus needed to continue the growth of the branch.
“I remain deeply proud of our achievements over the past year in advancing our shared values and our shared vision.
“Together we have established Reform UK’s presence in the city and have fought two by-elections pushing forwards the visibility of the party in a very politically charged environment.
“It has been an honour to serve alongside such dedicated members and I will continue to support and contribute to the committee in a visible role which will be presented to the branch at our next meeting.
“Plans are in place for the branch to move forwards and I look forward to seeing you all there and to standing for Reform UK in the 2027 council elections.”
Hmmm, very important that Gary stands down to focus, as he puts it, on his work commitments. So does that mean, if he’d been elected for Westbourne & Poets Corner last year, he’d have jacked it in by now? Given that Gary helped establish Brighton & Hove Independents with Cllr Fishleigh (and stood as an indie for Kemptown in the 2023 May elections), I was hoping he’d try and trick the Lib-Dems next. A total fake.
Adrian – your Queen’s Park campaign was a joke, you got almost no votes, time for you to retire.
He certainly jumped around a fair bit politically.
from independent to reform – not jumping around at all – get a grip
It’s more than just party hopping. The journey to hateful intolerance that Gary Farmer seems to have been on over the last ten years, almost doing a complete 180 degrees on his politics. I have a solid grip on the situation, which unfortunately, Gary has never been able to argue against this clear truth.
A £ 14k councillor allowance is a powerful retention tool!
There seems to be a trend for reform branch chairs to resign.
Recently I saw one resign because he said reform company HQ basically treats branches as leaflet deliverers (with leaflets produced centrally) and don’t want to know their views on policy and policy development.
changed positions in the party – read his comments
I read the article which doesn’t mention.
It’s hard to make a comment on a post that didn’t exist when I made my comment!
I’ll word this carefully, since a previous attempt was made to silence discussion of this matter under claims of defamation. Stand Up to Racism documented and shared tweets by Mr Farmer, which many interpreted as misogynistic and Islamophobic, and these were later reported on by this news outlet. Given that record, it’s difficult to see how his prospects as a future election candidate would not be affected, making standing down as Chair the right choice.
Has he stood for the Tories yet? They’d probably welcome that on his CV
Seems like a lot of Tories are defecting to Reform these days.
Rats jumping a sinking ship, are still rats.
Stand Up to Racism are a hateful, angry, intimidating rent a mob which are part of the Socialist Workers Party. Shameful bullies that smear and lie, the country is waking up to their tactics.
Their name is a bit of a giveaway.
But I suppose if your are a racist they would appear that way.
Imagine being a person who supports someone who literally refers to migration as “an invasion” and refers to females as “stupid women”. Comments that were so damning, he felt the need to remove his entire X account in an attempt to hide his intolerant and outdated preferences under the hashtag “British Values”. No Sanderson, the internet doesn’t forget, and the peace-loving people on the left and right see him for what it is.
Examples also include retweeting comments such as those from Paul Golding, who as a reminder is the leader of the fascist Britain First Party, on the 14th December criticising people peacefully praying. “Why don’t they pray in their mosques?” as well as sharing tweets calling for the release of leading British fascist Tommy Robinson.
It’s not smearing if it’s the truth, Sanderson. We can see the tweets, and people can make up their own minds. I’ve made up mine. Racism and misogyny does not belong in Brighton.
You don’t speak for everyone in Brighton. You have no right to say what does and doesn’t belong here.
Proving my point further. I repeat, people can make up their own minds. Racism and misogyny does not belong in Brighton. Suggesting that it should is quite damning of yourself, Al.
How is an organisation that stands for human rights, diversity and equality hateful? Reform want to strip us of all of these things, Farage has literally said so. We are not the hateful ones, we just have the guts to stand up against those who are. Deal with it
Not sure he has thought through his life choices
Work – requires foreign nationals
Party – wants no foreign nationals in the UK
I am moving to a different position within the branch, this will be announced in November. Sorry to all my detractors but you are so wrong about everything as usual. Adrian please remember you were one of the original BHI Independents with Bridget and you walked out and stood as an independent and came last. I moved from independent to Reform, not a big deal at all. Anyway, I look forward to my new role. Reform are 31% in the polls – happy days!!!
A familiar pattern, Gary.
Denying statements you’ve previously made, then deflecting criticism by attacking others who’ve at least stood by their words. Your move from Independent to Reform and subsequent comments only underline why stepping down as Chair was probably the right call, and why your prospects as a future election candidate, should you try again, will be shaped by that record.
You’ve just demonstrated the point perfectly.
Ha ha – yes, I moved from being an independent to being an independent. Outrageous of me I know!!!
Gary – a long long time ago (May 2024 in fact) we stood on the principle that our city might be better run if our councillors were not tribal adherents to the big national parties and lived and worked in the ward. 6 months later you joined Reform and then ran in Hove.
I think you tricked Reform too.
I think he is tricking himself believing in a party that has little or no respect for his life choices and his realities. It really is a desperate deal with the devil to achieve an elected role. Trading away your self respect is too high a price to pay for a vote.
I look forward to not voting for him or his replacement. I would never ever stick a cross by the name of those who look to divide those of us who love Brighton and Hove.
Oh the irony the Reform Chair who runs a language school. They must be the good foreigners then.
Nigel Farage was married to and is now in a serious relationship with a foreigner. It is nonsense to say anyone in Reform doesn’t like or thinks foreigners should not be welcome in this country. Those that successfully integrate have added huge value to this country. You just need to look at how communities like the Jewish community many of whom are second generation immigrants have added huge value to every aspect of British life to see this. Reform however like most reasonable people and unlike both Labour and the Conservatives do believe there should be immigration controls. We cannot continue with this situation in which the population in which the population increases by 600,000 each year. Many of these people share completely different cultural values to us and require high levels of state support. Obviously, France is not perfect and no one can blame them for wanting to escape from there. However, just look at the issue with housing in Brighton. The council pats itself on the back as it is building a few houses. This number is not even enough to cope with the population increase in Brighton in one month. Rick people like Benjamin who probably own somewhere to live and have loads of money in the bank and don’t need to worry about the state of the welfare state don’t need to worry about this. Other people do.
That’s a dog-whistle attempt to frame xenophobia as “common sense,” and there’s a lot to unpack.
It’s a false equivalence to claim that being in a relationship with a foreigner somehow disproves xenophobia, it simply makes it xenophobia with hypocrisy, which are poor qualities in any political leader.
Integration is a two-way process built on mutual respect, not conditional belonging. Every community contributes in different ways; pitting them against each other is manipulative and disingenuous.
Immigration controls already exist; Reform simply advocates far harsher restrictions and rhetoric, which is a straw-man argument with no merit.
Migration supports essential sectors and contributes more in tax than it takes in services. Housing shortages are caused mainly by supply and speculation, not migrants. There’s no single “British value set” – the problem is policy and market structure, not people.
Between the defensive nationalism, conditional inclusion, scapegoating, and ad-hominem assumptions, there’s little of substance left in your argument, Jane.
Good luck with your new position with Reform whatever it is, a lot of bitter, angry and offensive lefties writing drivel here and lies. Nobody is listening and they are irrelevant – all they have is their keyboards and a lot of issues they need to deal with, quite sad really.
Yet you can’t point to single thing that is false, resorting to argumentum ad hominem, ironically.
Gary has made racist comments on social media. He has described migration as an invasion. He has been misogynistic on social media. And he has shown online support to fascist groups.
He sounds like an excellent candidate. Not corrupt. Worked hard and actually achieved something. I bet he doesn’t support child grooming gangs, giving away our hard earned to money to pay the tax bills of Mauritians either. He is also probably not a supporter of terrorists and the Chinese communist party either. Frankly, whatever his views it is just incomprehensible to believe as an MP he could be in a party any worst than this shocking Government that will end up destroying the welfare state with their uncontrolled spending that will bankrupt this country,
Comments like this show exactly why it matters to challenge intolerance rather than excuse it.
No argument, just whining.
The left is dead, you just don’t know it yet because you’re too damn stupid.
The IK would like a strong government, local government and small state.
Defend the realm (ie immigration controls that are strictly enforced) keep the street lights on and the rubbish collected (and not wasting valuable money printing leaflets in 15 languages) and lastly, let us decide what we spend our money on, stop taxing to the hilt!)
And comments like that show exactly why it matters to challenge empty words – loud rhetoric, full of insults, yet no substance.
I don’t think there was any angry comments or offensive ones for that matter but I can give you realist. I retort all reform have is flags and cable ties and that got a bit old quickly didn’t it. 1 trip pony party, just like it was with Brexit when it was called the Brexit party. Unfortunately Nigel can only do 1 policy at a time. Shame there is always this question of privatising the NHS floating in the background as well as wholesale austerity nonsense which has been proven time and time again to ruin the economy.
What a non-story! Why is this considered news?
One persons argument, is another persons discussion.
By labelling people racist, islamophobic, misogynistic, anti-semetic, transphobe, homophobe, sexist etc etc, generally means you are not willing to accept other viewpoints and are trying to shut down, or win, in one’s eyes, an argument.
I have communicated with Gary, only over email, but my deduction was, as well as the effort and sacrifices required to run one’s own business, he was willing to put even more of his time in, to help towards a better UK.
There’s an important distinction between disagreement and discrimination.
Calling out racism or misogyny isn’t “shutting down debate” – it’s drawing a line where speech targets or demeans others. We can and should have robust debate about policy, but normalising intolerance under the banner of “different viewpoints” isn’t constructive, and Brighton & Hove voters have consistently rejected that kind of politics.
His views are beyond offensive. No place for hate. On your bike then mate !
He joined a party whose multimillionaire leadership include male chairman Bull, male deputy leader Tice and a leader with the initials NF, any coincidence?
A leadership so patriotic that they allegedly hold money in offshore accounts to avoid paying tax.
I doubt very much that Brighton will return a reform MP, but I have no doubt that the next government will be a Reform majority.
It’s a lot of what the polls are saying at the moment, yeah. Gary has ensured they won’t win here, at the very least.