Reform councillor faces backlash over posts mocking trans people...

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Reform councillor faces backlash over posts mocking trans people and LGBTQ+ acronym

https://www.thepinknews.com/2026/05/21/reform-uk-tracy-clayton/ 🔗

Siân Thompson (21 May 2026)

As reported by Yorkshire Live, Tracy Clayton, who won a seat representing Colne Valley West earlier this month, has been linked to an X account that allegedly shared memes targeting transgender women, AI-generated political imagery, and posts about Muslim communities.

One resurfaced image posted in March, just weeks before the local election, featured the slur-like addition of "pedosexual" to the LGBTQ+ acronym, echoing a long-running false trope used to associate queer people with child abuse.

The account, reportedly operating under the name "Tracy Clayton Reform UK," also shared posts questioning climate change and reposted content critics described as racist and discriminatory. Clayton has so far declined to comment publicly, responding "no comment" when approached at a council meeting.

A post from the same account published on 11 May, after the backlash began, said: "All the people that have attacked me, your narrative is boring."

Clayton is now the second Reform UK councillor elected in Colne Valley West to face scrutiny over alleged social media activity. Fellow newly-elected councillor Stefan Dransfield was recently criticised over a resurfaced 2020 Facebook post under his name showing an Asian man being punched with the caption "very satisfying."

Kirklees Council noted that the posts attributed to Clayton appear to predate her election and therefore fall outside the council's formal code of conduct for elected officials.

[Sephirah]

Yeah I wish I could say I was shocked. But I really am not. Reform is... the guy in charge got a £5 million "gift" to the point that the sitting government had to legislate against Crypto donations to parties. They have been shown to be massively racist, homophobic, transphobic, insular, and oligarchic. Where have we seen this before? Hmmm.

I am not sure how large the backlash is going to be, since people seem to want this kind of character running local government, if not national government. Which is a whole level of sad in itself. People are so disillusioned with the current lot that... it comes to something when the lesser of two evils has their own circle of hell.

[Stottie Girl]

Yeah I wish I could say I was shocked. But I really am not. Reform is... the guy in charge got a £5 million "gift" to the point that the sitting government had to legislate against Crypto donations to parties. They have been shown to be massively racist, homophobic, transphobic, insular, and oligarchic. Where have we seen this before? Hmmm.

I am not sure how large the backlash is going to be, since people seem to want this kind of character running local government, if not national government. Which is a whole level of sad in itself. People are so disillusioned with the current lot that... it comes to something when the lesser of two evils has their own circle of hell.

It is very upsetting. I thought we in Britain were better than this. Yes, we have always had the odd racist, homophobic knuckle draggers but for these morons to start being elected into power means the mainstream populace are harbouring these same thoughts. I don't know where this stuff ends. The far right seems to be on the rise all over the globe. Where is the fightback from the left?

[Sephirah]

It is very upsetting. I thought we in Britain were better than this. Yes, we have always had the odd racist, homophobic knuckle draggers but for these morons to start being elected into power means the mainstream populace are harbouring these same thoughts. I don't know where this stuff ends. The far right seems to be on the rise all over the globe. Where is the fightback from the left?

There isn't really a left. There is a right, and a not-quite-as-right. People want to hate anyone different. And blame anyone different for all the world's ills. Because it's always easier than looking inwards. So if someone can give you a target to hate, voters will take that every time. Forget that people coming to different countries will do literally anything for way less money... it's always easier to blame them than people not wanting to get out of bed for less than £20 an hour.

We are not better than this, sadly. Look at the whole Windrush thing that went on after World War 2. Decent people want to think we are, but herd mentality is something disgusting.

[Stottie Girl]

I hope you turn out to be wrong but I fear you are right.

I can understand with the cost of UK living how some people simply cannot afford to take these low paid jobs. This race to the bottom is a result of the failure of free market capitalism in my eyes. Ever since Thatcher and Reagan put private companies and corporations in the driving seat they have been driving down the wages and stripping assets and raising the cost of living. They don't care if we end up in the dirt.

Oh dear I'm about to go off on a social democratic rant again. I will reign myself back in!

[Dawn Kellie]

I hope you turn out to be wrong but I fear you are right.

I can understand with the cost of UK living how some people simply cannot afford to take these low paid jobs. This race to the bottom is a result of the failure of free market capitalism in my eyes. Ever since Thatcher and Reagan put private companies and corporations in the driving seat they have been driving down the wages and stripping assets and raising the cost of living. They don't care if we end up in the dirt.

Oh dear I'm about to go off on a social democratic rant again. I will reign myself back in!

Don't get yourself in trouble. Enhance your calm

[Sephirah]

I hope I turn out to be wrong, too, Sarah.

I want to believe in the good in people. But as a group, we are very bad for each other. We become like literal sheep. You can get a group of people to believe almost anything. Whether that's trans people being some kind of predator, or immigrants needing to be shipped off to a foreign country... if you can get enough people to believe something, then it doesn't matter about the rest.

I understand the whole cost of living thing, but you can't blame people coming here from other countries for taking jobs someone else won't do. Which... is like 5x as much as they would ever have seen where they came from. You can't have it both ways. You can't say people are taking our jobs when we don't want to do them, and then saying there is no work, you know? That's nonsensical.

But that's how parties like reform operate. There always has to be someone to blame. Someone who isn't the people they want voting for them. It's the worst kind of populism that marginalises the fringes of society by appealing to the majority. Like Brexit. And look how that turned out.

[Stottie Girl]

I hope I turn out to be wrong, too, Sarah.

I want to believe in the good in people. But as a group, we are very bad for each other. We become like literal sheep. You can get a group of people to believe almost anything. Whether that's trans people being some kind of predator, or immigrants needing to be shipped off to a foreign country... if you can get enough people to believe something, then it doesn't matter about the rest.

I understand the whole cost of living thing, but you can't blame people coming here from other countries for taking jobs someone else won't do. Which... is like 5x as much as they would ever have seen where they came from. You can't have it both ways. You can't say people are taking our jobs when we don't want to do them, and then saying there is no work, you know? That's nonsensical.

But that's how parties like reform operate. There always has to be someone to blame. Someone who isn't the people they want voting for them. It's the worst kind of populism that marginalises the fringes of society by appealing to the majority. Like Brexit. And look how that turned out.

I agree, but they should be coming here, taking our jobs AND getting a fair wage for it. What is happening is pure exploitation and I don't like to see it. The only problem I have with immigration is that we can't keep taking these numbers. There is nothing wrong with having a system like Canada or Australia. Nobody is calling them racist. It's just common sense. We are a small country, we cannot take the volume of immigration no matter who is coming into the country. That thought is common throughout the UK and it is this sensible, logical thought that Reform and others are twisting into racist ideology.

When you see how the country is going along with it all you can see how the facists rose to power in places like Germany. We should have learn't by now. It's depressing that we have not.

[Sephirah]

I agree, but they should be coming here, taking our jobs AND getting a fair wage for it. What is happening is pure exploitation and I don't like to see it. The only problem I have with immigration is that we can't keep taking these numbers. There is nothing wrong with having a system like Canada or Australia. Nobody is calling them racist. It's just common sense. We are a small country, we cannot take the volume of immigration no matter who is coming into the country. That thought is common throughout the UK and it is this sensible, logical thought that Reform and others are twisting into racist ideology.

When you see how the country is going along with it all you can see how the facists rose to power in places like Germany. We should have learn't by now. It's depressing that we have not.

I agree with you apart from one thing, Sarah. It does matter who is coming into the UK. When I left the Navy I got a job working with the Asylum team for my local council. There is a big difference between people coming to the UK because they want a better wage, and people coming here because they are terrified and under threat of being killed. That difference has been lost over the last 15 years. People stopped caring. Anyone not born here is all seen the same these days. And all treated as an inconvenience. That is horrible.

The trouble is, these days we don't really care about the difference. It's too hard to sort out. I know this is very far off topic, and I am sorry, but it all ties in to the kind of people Reform put forwards as their candidates. The same kind of people who look at trans people and see them as nothing more as "men who should be on a register." Voters seem to love it, because they hate the Labour government they likely voted for not so long ago.

It's a reflex action. Ultimately damaging.

[Stottie Girl]

To be clear I'm talking about economic migration not genuine refugees. You know I spent time installing gas applicances for refugees from Syria during the initial uprising. They were all from Homs which was absolutely devastated and to a man they were genuinely lovely people. My cousin has taken in a Ukrainian refugee into her own home which I think is amazing. I have no issue with them coming here or anyone genuinely fleeing persecution. I thought Australia and Canada accepted these asylum seekers also or am I wrong about that?

This seems to be a touchy subject on these boards so I will leave it at that as I ended up being thought of as far right last time I spoke up. We should not shy away from the debate though as it is the very fact that mainstream parties ignore the conversation because it is hard that the racists are getting the ear of the populace.

[Sephirah]

To be clear I'm talking about economic migration not genuine refugees. You know I spend time installing gas applicances for refugees from Syria during the initial uprising. THey were all from Homs which was absolutely devastaed and to a man they were genuinely lovely people. My cousin has taken in a Ukrainian rfuge into her own home which I think is amazing. I have no issue with them coming here or anyone genuinely fleeing persecution. I thought Australia and Canada accepted thes asylum seekers also or am I wrong about that?

This seems to be a touchy subject on these boards so I will leave it at that as I ended up being thought of as far right last time I spoke up. We should not shy away from the debate though as it is the very fact that mainstream parties ignore the conversation because it is hard that the racists are getting the ear of the populace.

I don't think of you that way, Sarah. You see the good in people. Doesn't matter who they are. The messy thing is trying to sort out the two. It's become more and more intertwined in the last 20 years. Not just in the UK. Back when I was dealing with it, the rules were very different. But that was kind of before it became such an issue.