The Guardian is covering the story of Reform UK’s mysterious candidates who appear to be non-existent. In fact, they are real but obviously very shy about being linked publicly to Reform. We had one such candidate in Selby. David John Burns stood for Reform UK last week but as far as I can see, there are no images of him, he doesn’t seem to have done any canvassing and may not have ever visited the constituency. I don’t believe he attended the hustings or the count or knocked on a single door in Selby to speak to any potential constituents about local issues.
Mr Burn’s election leaflet is a generic version with images of Farage and Tice but not him. Neither is his picture on Who Can I Vote For, a website where I can see the four other candidates but not Burns. He has a placeholder but no image. It's a bit of a slap in the face for Selby's constituents that he couldn't be bothered to take a selfie or get on a train to visit.
He is one of the dozens, possibly hundreds of what Reform UK call ‘paper candidates’ according to the Guardian story. We don’t know if he’s 21 or 81, able-bodied or not, black, white, brown or yellow, rich or poor, clever or stupid, and whether or not he can properly represent us in parliament.
This all stems from reports that one candidate in Clapham and Brixton Hill, Mark Matlock was not a real person because his image looks like it was AI generated and he didn’t attend the hustings or the count. Matlock has a Twitter account created in June 2024, presumably after the election date was announced but no other social media presence, which is distinctly odd for a young man. He tweeted that he wasn’t able to attend the count because he had pneumonia.
Who gets pneumonia in the UK in July when they seem to be fit and in their twenties? The Guardian claims to have spoken to Mr Matlock and established that he is real and lives in The Cotswolds. I am sure that's right but there is still some suspicion that he's not quite what he seems.
None of this is new. The Times ran a similar story on 3 July about a lady standing for Reform UK in South Dorset when she in fact lived in Derbyshire and had only never visited the county once in her life on holiday years ago. Morgan Tara Young also used the phrase ‘paper candidate’ and admitted she worked for Reform UK in their Leicestershire office.
Her image doesn’t appear on the Who Can I Vote For website either.
But back to our David Burns. On the North Yorkshire elections website, I can see he was nominated by Christopher Darren Hayley acting as his election agent. Mr Hayley is a director of Brengor Innovation Ltd at an address on Swordfish Way in Sherburn-in-Elmet. Hayley (with 2 'y's) seems to have spelled his own name wrong because he’s registered at the same address at Companies House as Haley (like the comet discoverer). How did that happen?
We only know that Mr Burns has an address in North West Leicestershire because that’s all he wants to reveal about himself.
By an odd coincidence, Helen Burns, also with an address in North West Leicestershire stood for Reform in Glasgow North and doesn’t have an image on the Who Can I Vote For Website either. I suspect she didn’t do any campaigning and has probably never been to Glasgow, even for the count. Are these two related? We may never know.
I see that The Brexit Party (now Reform) used to have a registered office at The Old Police Station, South Street, Ashby-De-La-Zouch, LE65 1BQ - which is in North West Leicestershire.
I haven’t checked the whole 650 constituencies but I can see quite a few other places where the Reform candidates have no image. All the main party wannabes have their pictures and many of Reform’s candidates do, but a lot don’t. I find this strange when everyone has a mobile phone with a built-in camera and can send pictures around the world instantly.
I also learn that Burns must have been a late substitution since according to York Press on 8 April Dave Kent was supposed to be Reform UK's man in Selby. Mr Kent has a picture of himself with Richard Tice so we knew what he looked like.
What does it all mean?
Well, firstly it’s important to say none of it is illegal. There is no obligation on anyone to use their own name when putting themselves forward to be an MP (hence Screaming Lord Sutch, and Count Binface who stood against Sunak in Richmond). Returning officers are not allowed to conduct inquiries or investigate if the candidate is genuine.
Secondly, Mr Burn, rather surprisingly, got 9,565 votes and came third, ahead of the Greens and the LibDems. Not far off 20% of the voters in Selby were happy to vote for a man they have never seen and know nothing about. I would venture to say that perhaps if they did, they might not be so keen to support him.
W can only guess what he would have achieved had he spent time here and made half-decent arguments. As it is, it looks as if he didn't want or expect to win and we are moving toward a more presidential system where the local candidate is irrelevant.
What I think this shows is that Reform was able to split the Conservative vote and deliver a massive, almost fatal blow to the Tories at little or no cost and with minimal effort. Farage's pulling power can't be doubted but it means Reform UK is a one-man band, a vehicle for Farage to exploit his personal capacity for demagoguery and division.
The Tory party will be destroyed if they ever adopt him as leader and are finished if they don't.
