‘Elected representatives are expected to set a higher standard of public discourse’

A Wigan councillor has been criticised for a social media post featuring a “crude meme” of a supporter of a rival political party.

Official response and confirmed impact

Coun Matthew Lambert, a Reform UK representative in Douglas ward, appears to have posted the image on a Facebook story.

It features someone who seems to be drooling and is wearing a cap bearing the words “Restore BNP”.

It caught the attention of Elliot Lowe, acting secretary for Wigan and Leigh Restore Britain, who described it as “a crude meme depicting a supporter of Restore Britain as a drooling idiot”.

He said: “Members of Reform UK frequently and rightly condemn comparisons of their party to extremists or Nazis, warning that such rhetoric can inflame tensions and risk real-world consequences.

“Yet Coun Lambert has chosen to do precisely the same to another group: equating Restore Britain with the BNP and reducing its supporters to a caricature of mental incapacity.

“Elected representatives are expected to set a higher standard of public discourse.

Mocking political opponents in this fashion does nothing to advance debate; it simply lowers the tone and invites the very divisiveness that Reform figures claim to oppose.