Reform candidate suggested prostitutes should not complain about sexual harassment

A candidate from Reform UK suggested in two social media posts that prostitutes should not be allowed to complain about sexual harassment. I can betray.

Malcolm Cupis, standing for Nigel Farage’s party in Devizes, Wiltshire, responded to a news report about a New Zealand sex worker who was awarded six-figure compensation for harassment in her workplace.

Mr Cupis, a former Conservative Party activist, wrote on Facebook in 2020: “If a prostitute wasn’t sexually harassed, surely she wouldn’t be a prostitute? In other news, a doctor sues after being asked to heal sick people and a mechanic sues after being asked to fix a broken car…”

That same day, he wrote on Twitter, which he now calls X: “I’m having a bit of a hard time with this. If a prostitute wasn’t sexually harassed, wouldn’t she be a prostitute?”

The comments are the latest from Reform candidates to speak out as the party tries to assert itself against a British official opposition that is coming under increasing scrutiny.

Last week, the party said it was considering legal action against a vetting company it had hired to scour the past social media posts of its potential candidates after other comments emerged from people seeking to become Reform MPs.

Party leader Richard Tice said vetting.com had “promised a full investigation” in return for paying £144,000 but had delivered “absolutely nothing”.

Reform did not respond to a request to comment on Mr Cupis’ Facebook and Twitter posts, but the candidate himself said I Although he will not react to the case of the sex workers in New Zealand in the same way today, he will not apologise either, as it was neither “illegal, discriminatory nor offensive”.

The candidate for Melksham and Devizes explained: “I wanted to point out in a humorous and ironic way that a prostitute must expect to be sexually harassed and that she would not be a prostitute if she were not sexually harassed.

“I reiterate that I was not a political candidate when I made that comment. I would almost certainly choose not to respond in that way now. However, I do not view it as illegal, discriminatory or offensive in any way and am not inclined to apologize for it.”

Mr Cupis was one of eight Reform candidates whose other past social media comments were uncovered by the BBC over the weekend.

In a video, Mr Cupis said of a dancing woman that she was behaving “like a gutter slut” and described another woman as a “nasty old hag”.

Responding to the BBC report, he said the video of the dancing women posted on YouTube was offensive in itself and contained misogynistic and racist language.

Mr Cupis said: “I wasn’t a parliamentary candidate when I wrote that answer but I’ll tell you what: I stand by every word in it and I’m proud to say so. ‘Gutter sluts’ are actually nothing compared to what the cast describe themselves as.”

He added: “I have never been a politician, I have no education or training as a politician.

“It is a great honour for me to represent the place where I come from, where I attended primary and secondary school and where I was once editor of the local newspaper.

“I make no apologies for not sounding or acting like a politician, because everywhere I go all I hear is that people are sick of politicians, especially the overly polished career politicians who tend to use a lot of words and say nothing.”

Other Reform candidates covered by the BBC included Simon Moorehead, standing in Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West, who wrote on X: “(Jo) Cox was a terrible woman with bad ideas,” adding: “But nobody wanted her dead.”

Mark Cole, Reform’s candidate in Harwich and North Essex, wrote in a Facebook post: “Accidentally turned on X-Factory. Only thing worth watching is the black chick… whoever she is.”

The BBC said Mr Cole deleted the comment after being asked about it by the broadcaster.