Gavin Beales says he 'may have inadvertently been linked' to the racist dating site
Reform UK councillor Gavin Beales, who has been exposed by a national newspaper as being on a leaked list of users of a white supremacist site, says he would never “knowingly have chosen to be a member”.
The North Northamptonshire Reform councillor was named by the Observer as being a former user of the racist dating site, WhiteDate.
WhiteDate was shut down by a German hacker Martha Root at a security conference last month.
Before erasing the site, Root downloaded a database of the site’s users and published a sample of the data last week.
In a statement to the NN Journal, Beales, who was elected onto North Northamptonshire Council last May, said that when he moved from London to Wellingborough over a decade a go, he used mainstream dating sites to try and meet a partner.
He added: “It appears that around seven years ago I may have inadvertently been linked to another site. If this occurred, it would have been for a very short period of time and without a paid subscription.
“Given the time that has passed, I cannot clearly recall the details. However, in light of what is now known about the nature of the site, I would never have knowingly chosen to be a member or to associate myself with it in any way.”
Beales said that having lived in different parts of the UK, he has worked alongside people of different ages, backgrounds, skin colours and religions, adding: “I abhor racism in all its forms”.
He also said: “It saddens me that something so minor, from so long ago, can be presented in a way that distracts from the work I do for families and communities.”
Beales also won a seat on Wellingborough Town Council in a by-election on 20 November. He is facing calls from opposition councillors to step down from both of his council roles.
A Tory councillor in Somerset, Lillith Osborn, also had a profile on WhiteDate. She has been suspended from the Conservative Party over her membership of the site.
In a statement, the Green Party group on North Northamptonshire Council said: “This is yet another worrying example of Reform councillors with views that do not represent the people they are elected to serve.
“Just a few short months ago a NNC Reform Councillor in Corby resigned as a result of his alleged disgusting racist comments to his neighbours. This kind of news is becoming far too common with Reform Councillors across the country.
“If these allegations are true, Cllr Gavin Beales should follow suit, and resign his role as councillor from both North Northamptonshire Council and Wellingborough Town Council immediately.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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