Nigel Farage has said “it doesn’t look good” for a Reform UK council leader being investigated by the party for “non-disclosure of social media accounts”.

Staffordshire County Council leader Ian Cooper allegedly posted a comment online describing Sir Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, as a “narcissistic Pakistani”.

The Tamworth Pennycrofts councillor was Reform’s parliamentary candidate for Tamworth in a by-election in 2023 and again in last year’s general election. He finished third in both contests.

The Guardian reports an X account allegedly linked to Mr Cooper claimed migrants were “intent on colonising the UK, destroying all that has gone before”.

The account, which follows the council’s deputy leader Martin Murray and senior members of Staffordshire Police, attacked Sir Sadiq, who was born in Tooting, claiming “London has become a 3rd world s*** hole – fact! Truth hurts this narcissistic Pakistani”.

It also said British televison and radio presenter Sangita Myska was “neither ethnically, culturally or historically English”, adding: “Your diaspora isn’t NW European. All you have is a piece of paper entitling you to British citizenship.”

The account also targeted British activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu. In a post three years ago, the account said: “Dr Shaga Bing-Bong…Time she f****d off back to Nigeria. She’d feel more at home there.”

It suggested the then-foreign secretary David Lammy, who was born in north London to Guyanese parents, was “Caribbean”, adding that “no foreign national or first generation migrant should be allowed to sit in Parliament”.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Mr Farage said he had only been made aware of the claims at 5pm on Wednesday, adding: “We’re going through due process. All I can say is it doesn’t look very good. We expect our people to be truthful with us and if they’re truthful with us, we’ll be honorable towards them.”

A Reform UK spokesman told GB News: “We are undergoing an urgent internal investigation over Cllr Cooper’s non-disclosure of social media accounts.”

A spokesman from Staffordshire County Council told the People’s Channel they were aware of the issue, adding: “In terms of complaints to us, where there is a concern raised about the conduct of any elected Member, it will be considered in line with the council’s Standards Complaints process and our Code of Conduct.”

GB News has contacted Mr Cooper for a comment.

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It is the latest headache for Reform UK, after the party’s only member of the Welsh Parliament was suspended from the Senedd debating chamber for using a racist slur.

Laura Ann Jones, who defected from the Tories made the remark about Chinese people in a group discussion about the Chinese-owned app TikTok in August 2023, writing: “No c***** spies for me.”

Holding back tears, Ms Jones told the chamber: “I fully accept the standards commissioner’s findings in this report, and thank him for a full, fair and thorough investigation.

“I welcome the clear and welcome conclusion of both the police and standards commissioner, clearing me of any fraudulent activity, the police stating that there was absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing.

“As for the language that I regrettably used in the private WhatsApp messages, I would like to take this opportunity to apologise once again for that in this chamber. I never meant to cause any offence and would never have that intention of doing so.

“It is deeply regrettable that the message and others in which I had aired my frustrations in private, which I’ve also apologised for and do again, were leaked to the press and made public where they had the potential of being misconstrued and hurt someone unnecessarily.”

In Kent, a group of Reform councillors were kicked out after an investigation into a video leak in what was once dubbed their “flagship” local authority.

Reform UK took Kent County Council with 57 out of 81 seats at the local elections in May, overturning a 30-year Tory majority.

It now has 48 councillors after removing nine, most of which appear to be related to a leaked video of KCC leader Linden Kemkaran shouting and swearing at her members.

In a leaked video, Ms Kemkaran can be seen telling members to “f*****g suck it up” when they disagree with her on policy decisions.

Ex-Reform councillor Bill Barrett has called the expulsions “operation clean sweep” and claimed the KCC hierarchy wanted to get rid of councillors who challenged them.

Isabella Kemp and Maxine Fothergill are the latest to be removed following their suspensions.

A Reform UK spokesman said: “Cllr Izzy Kemp has been expelled from Reform UK following an internal investigation into the leaking of confidential information.

“Cllr Maxine Fothergill has been expelled from Reform UK after an internal investigation found she had failed to disclose a serious matter to the party during vetting.”

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