Reform UK Kirklees has been called out by Kirklees Conservative Councillors after endorsing Westminster’s Accelerator Programme, which involved creating an ‘attack ad’ on the Tories as part of the application.
Published to Reform Kirklees’ Facebook Page on Saturday, 22 August, the AI-Generated post featured an advertisement for a 12-week-long ‘Accelerator Programme’ looking to make politics “accessible”.
The programme promised two weeks of “learning how the party works” and how to “win” campaigns before 10 weeks getting “stuck into real work”.
The post read: “If you’re ambitious, adventurous and want to broaden your horizons, don’t assume Westminster is somewhere that belongs to other people.
“Whether you’re from Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley, Mirfield, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth or anywhere else across Kirklees, opportunities like this should be open to you too.”
During the application process, candidates were then asked to create an “attack ad” on the Conservative Group.
The application instructions read: “Do all of the following tasks and send us the result:
- “Create a visual leaflet or an attack ad on the Conservative Party that will have mass appeal and understanding.
- “Imagine you are the press officer tasked with launching Operation Fortress for Zia Yusuf. Create a plan to launch the policy, using all avenues, press and digital.
- “Research and brief an original policy idea that Reform UK should adopt, condense into three pages max.
“Attach 300 words on why you made the choices you did in your tasks. That’s the whole application. We will judge your work, and nothing else.”
This comes despite continued online pledges from Reform Council Leader Sarah Wood that her group was “committed to continued collaboration”.
The Kirklees Conservative Group were contacted for comment. Conservative Councillor Bill Armer warned that the scheme was “interesting but not surprising”.
Cllr Armer said: “Interesting, but not surprising. From the very top, Reform has vowed to destroy the Conservative Party on several occasions in recent years.”
Reform UK and Cllr Wood have also been contacted for comment. Kirklees Council has also been approached for comment.
