Reform UK Councillor Who Claimed Social Media Post Had Been ‘Misinterpreted’ as Racist Shared Multiple Other Offensive Posts

Reform UK are under pressure to sack one of their newly-elected councillors, who apologised last week for a single social media post he claimed had been misinterpreted as racist, after Byline Times uncovered a series of other offensive and racist posts.

Ken Tranter, who was elected to Hampshire County Council earlier this month apologised for a post in which he called for police to take action regarding “non-white persons taking over” public gardens.

Tranter said he had made a “poor choice of words” before adding that “racism has no place in our community, or in my politics, and I condemn it in all its forms.”

In a post on Facebook, Tranter said that “referring to the group by skin colour was a poor choice that I deeply regret”.

“It was clumsy, unnecessary, and open to misinterpretation as racist, and I take full responsibility for that.

However, social media activity posted prior to his election to public office and unearthed by Byline Times draws his apology and explanation into question.

Just before the election, on 5 May, Tranter shared another post comparing two Muslim men to cockroaches.

The post, captioned “Neglect your house, and this will take over” – depicted a picture of a cockroach, and then below it, the words: “Neglect your country, and this will take over”, next to another picture depicting two Muslim men holding a Palestinian flag.

Tranter also posted another post in April this year with what looks to be an AI-generated image of a large Muslim family with the caption “they breed, you pay”. He shared at least two versions of this meme in April, both appearing to target Muslims.

In a post from October 2024, Tranter shared a meme which read: “Coming soon – The Aspirin Tax” – implying that “Labour is going to impose a 40% tax on Aspirin” because “it’s WHITE and it WORKS!”.

In another post, from 2023, he shared a “joke” which in its entirety read: “I took my dog to the dole office to see what he was entitled to. The bloke behind the counter said, ‘you idiot, we don’t give benefits to dogs.’, I argued, why not? He’s brown, he stinks, he’s never worked a f*cking day in his life, & he can’t speak a f*cking word of English.” The man replied, “his first payment will be Monday.”

Tranter has shared multiple other “joke” memes on Facebook, mocking asylum seekers and migrants, with a focus on Islam and Muslims in particular, including one depicting Prime Minister Keir Starmer as a small dog being walked on a leash by a Muslim man, and one depicting Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali, who is a Muslim, pulling the strings of leader Zack Polanski as if he were a marionette puppet.

Responding to the image targeting him and others, Green Party Deputy Leader Mothin Ali told this outlet: “This Reform councillor is just another from a huge list of Reform councillors with a clear history of deeply offensive, racist posts. Reform UK’s entire political strategy relies on stirring up racism and xenophobia.

“Racist parties should have no place in our society and the Green Party has shown how we can beat them with policies designed to tackle the cost of living crisis in places like Gorton and Denton.”

Cllr Tranter has also appeared to dismiss mentions of slavery in debates on race. In September 2025, he shared a post that read “I’m sorry, your race card has been declined, do you have another form of argument?”, and another from 2020, seemingly referring to the concept of countries paying reparations to victims of Britain’s historic slave trade, that read: “I never owned any slaves, you never picked any cotton – case closed”, which he himself had captioned “End of!”.

Elsewhere, he shared an image of a person in a burqa sitting next to a drag performer on an underground train, with an imposed image of a World War Two soldier in front of them asking the question “why the fuck did I bother?”, as well as another image, shared in 2024, depicting a 1950s-style pinup poster of a blonde woman smiling, seemingly mocking pride month, captioned with: “White Pride Month. Happy white heterosexual pride month, everyone!!!”

Speaking to Byline Times, a spokesperson for Stand Up To Racism Rushmoor said: “Ken Tranter’s shocking racism not only has no place in society, it makes our streets, workplaces and schools unsafe.”

“Mr Tranter’s record of vile racism must render him unfit to serve on any council – how can council workers and residents feel safe at work and in their communities?

“Councillors should refuse to work with the Reform UK councillors and demand the expulsion of Mr Tranter. We stand with workers at the council and all residents of Rushmoor against racism and against Reform UK’s millionaire-first agenda”.

Cllr Tranter frequently appears to share content from Rushmoor People First, an anti-migrant group of which he is a member on Facebook. Activists from Rushmoor People First, not understood to have included Ken Tranter, stormed an Aldershot church that was hosting an anti-racism meeting in December 2024. Four involved were convicted of assault by beating at a trial this April, as Byline Times recently revealed.

Ken Tranter and Reform UK did not respond to requests for comment.

Additional reporting by Josiah Mortimer.

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