Reform UK ‘looking into’ south London candidate who 'wrote anti-vax paper'

Reform UK has confirmed it is “looking into” allegations surrounding one of its local election candidates in Croydon, after claims he authored a paper describing the Covid-19 pandemic as a “staged event”.

David Booth is standing as a councillor in Kenley, but the party has not confirmed whether he will remain a candidate following the controversy.

Purley resident Booth was identified as the author of an article published in the Journal of 9/11 Studies in September last year, according to an initial report by Byline Times.

In the paper, Booth reportedly wrote: “It is increasingly clear that the so-called Covid-19 pandemic was a staged event, designed to enable profound changes desired by powerful forces at the expense of majority populations around the world.”

Booth, a retired researcher specialising in development and politics, apparently claimed that harm attributed to Covid-19 was actually caused “by the policies” introduced in response, including vaccination programmes. He also repeatedly referred to the pandemic in quotation marks and suggested it was orchestrated by what he described as powerful global actors.

The article, titled ‘Covid-19 as a Structural Deep Event: Cutting to the Chase on Perpetrators and Motives’, draws heavily on non-peer-reviewed sources. Its bibliography includes dozens of blog posts, Substack articles and fringe advocacy material, with 55 citations from unverified online sources.

Within the paper, Booth reportedly alleges that a so-called “Global Biodefence Public-Private Partnership” involving Western military and intelligence agencies staged the pandemic. He also suggests the crisis may have been fabricated through manipulated imagery, falsified statistics or even the deliberate seeding of pathogens.

A spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice described the claims as “absolutely shocking”. They added: “These dangerous and offensive conspiracy theories are an insult to all of us who lost loved ones to Covid-19 and witnessed its deadly impact first-hand.”

The spokesperson called on Reform UK to take immediate action, saying: “Reform should immediately remove Mr Booth as a candidate and make clear, without any ambiguity, that it rejects these views.”

Reform UK has yet to respond to calls for deselection, and has only told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it is “looking into” the issue.

Booth has a history of engaging with and reposting anti-vax content on his active Twitter page. He is one of two Reform candidates running in the ward, currently represented by two Conservative Councillors.

Announcing his candidacy on Reform Croydon’s website, Booth said: “I am a Ward Champion for Reform in Kenley because I am fed up.” He added: “We badly need to be governed by people who care about the country’s future. At the very least, that means keeping us safe, defending our borders, protecting our institutions and respecting our history.”

Booth has lived in Purley for 25 years but says he spends much of his leisure time in Kenley.

Mr Booth did not respond to a request for comment.