EXCLUSIVE: Sharon Carby, aged 70, from Bradford, sadly died in 2024. But that didn’t stop Reform UK months later picking her as their Croydon mayoral candidate. By our Political Editor, WALTER CRONXITE
Millionaire grifter: Farage, looking for local Reform candidates in Croydon
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party is advertising for a candidate to run in Croydon’s mayoral elections next May.
The recruitment ad went out this week. Reform are looking for a replacement, because at the start of this year, they chose as their Croydon mayoral candidate a woman from Yorkshire who had been dead for nearly six months.
Despite all the hours of television airtime lavished on Farage and his lies and dog-whistle politics, Reform in south London is in something of a febrile mess, according to past and present members of Reform who – despite dire warnings – have contacted this website.
A recent council by-election victory in Bromley and the latest opinion polls might indicate that Reform could present a real challenge to the established political order in Croydon in May 2026. If only they could stop fighting amongst themselves for five minutes, splitting off to join the latest Tommy Robinson-inspired party, while managing to select a mayoral candidate who is still actually alive.
Our sources, some who have quit Reform in disgust, seem genuinely surprised that the party is a haven for right-whingers, red necks and racists. “I stayed with Reform after the General Election, but I repeatedly overheard racist remarks from local members and voters, including comments about senior Reform figures Ben Habib and Christina Jordan,” said one source.
Habib is the Karachi-born former Brexit Party MEP and co-deputy leader of Reform who last year fell out with Farage and founded breakaway party Advance. As well as welcoming serial criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon as a member, Advance now has the public backing of Elon Musk. What could possibly go wrong?
Reform’s pick: Sharon Carby, from Bradford, died in September 2024. Reform picked her as Croydon’s Mayoral candidate six months later
The Croydon Reform members and ex-members describe a party at local level that barely exists in any recognisable, organised form.
According to sources, Reform across Croydon and Sutton is organised jointly because “the WEF uniparty is so powerful”. That’s a reference to the paranoid notion that Jason Perry and Rowenna Davis are in some manner in cahoots with the World Economic Forum… We’ll let our readers decide the likelihood of that particular conspiracy theory.
Reform locally is said to have fewer than 1,000 members across the constituencies of Croydon and Sutton. Party meetings are staged at the ‘Spoons pub in Selsdon, the Sir Julian Huxley. That was where they staged their selection meeting for a 2024 parliamentary candidate.
Other meetings have been held in the Crown and Pepper on South End, or at the Pear Tree in Purley, while the living room in the home of local chairman Nik Stewert has also served for meetings.
Reform members have been ordered not to speak to Inside Croydon, which apparently is “run by the woke leftist MSM”. One member said: “Your sort want to erase our ideas.”
Political hotbed: the Sir Julian Huxley is used by Reform for local meetings
Another said, “Although I’ve been told to avoid you, I want free and open journalism to show how great our wonderful Nigel Farage and his party are.”
With little effort, or money, spent on anything resembling conventional campaigning in Croydon last year, Reform still drew in thousands of votes, particularly in Croydon East (third behind Labour and Tories) and Croydon South (pipped to third by the LibDems), although Vinayak Malhotra, a candidate of south Asian origin, almost lost his deposit in Croydon West, “down to the racist attitudes from the party”, according to one disillusioned Reform footsoldier.
Following the General Election, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s then party chairman (until he had a falling out with Farage; there may be a pattern here), sent an auditor into the branch, making serious recommendations over financial records, the holding of branch meetings and the staging of campaign events.
Versions vary, but it appears that at the start of 2025, Reform UK’s HQ imposed on its Croydon branch an “approved” candidate to challenge Tory Jason Perry to become the borough’s next Mayor.
Her name was Sharon Carby, 70, from Bradford.
Carby had died in September 2024.
Fewer than 10 Reform members were present at this selection meeting.
One said of Carby, “I haven’t met her but I’ve been told she’s absolutely brilliant!”
They added: “A working-class patriot from Bradford!” They said that Carby had been selected by a “majority vote” from an “ExCom” (executive committee) meeting at Millbank Towers, the party’s plush headquarters.
Fan of Tommy Robinson: Sharon Carby’s Twitter account, which has been run for the year since her death by her widower, David
Carby’s social media timeline is full of the kind of garbled, racist bile that seeks to scapegoat others for the country’s shortcomings. Carby was a Tommy Robison fan.
Her profile describes her as “Brexiteer. Anti-woke patriot. Anti-WEF. Conservative Christian. Reform member. Love Farage, Tommy and DJT”, the latter letters a reference to the orange man-child that inhabits the White House.
At the Reform Croydon “selection” meeting, those who suggested that Carby’s death might be a bit of a problem for them at the 2026 elections were abused and ordered to be quiet. Some drink had been taken by some of the older members attending the meeting, and they became abusive.
“When I phoned HQ, they claimed to have no knowledge of me at all,” our source said. After years as a member of the Brexit Party and then Reform, this member quit Farage’s party over what they described as “the absolutely chaotic candidate selection in Croydon”.
Another local Reform member confirmed to Inside Croydon that Carby had been “parachuted in” by HQ, who had told them that “she was from Yorkshire and had been handing leaflets out for the Brexit Party and Reform UK since 2019”.
It is suggested that Carby might have been a prospective parliamentary candidate for Bradford South in 2024, “but quietly refused due to her ill-health”. So Reform HQ did at least know Carby wasn’t very well.
Carby’s Twitter account has been maintained for the past year by her widower, David Carby.
No icebergs were involved in the sinking of the Titanic: an example of Carby’s tweets
Sharon Carby, according to her husband, died on September 27, 2024.
“She was a proud member of Reform, always deeply loved to her community in Bradford, and hoped to run for council in 2025,” David wrote then, although he didn’t mention which council his late wife wanted to run for.
Inside Croydon contacted Nik Stewert, who claims to be the chair of Reform UK in Croydon, but he refused to answer our questions. “Having reviewed a previous article in which Reform are mentioned we do not wish to engage further at this time,” Stewert said, somewhat snootily.
Reform UK HQ has also failed to respond to our emails.
The Conservatives picked their candidate for Croydon Mayor in late 2024. Labour, the LibDems and Greens all announced candidates earlier in 2025. Reform UK is only now advertising for a candidate.
Just in case you fancy your chances as Croydon’s Mayor, as a replacement candidate for a dead woman, you might want to consider the party’s advertisement.
“We are looking for exceptional people to put themselves forward to be our candidate for the elected position of Mayor of Croydon.” Being a dead woman might qualify for “exceptional”, you might suggest.
“No prior political experience is necessary, but you must be talented, have a track record solving problems in the real world and be deeply patriotic. Most of all you must have a huge passion for improving the lives of the people of Croydon.”
Apparently, “the best candidates will be invited to further rounds”, presumably referring to strong, foreign lager, drunk at a convenient branch of ‘Spoons, to be followed by an interview panel of local members.
“The successful candidate will be supported with comprehensive training from the Reform Centre of Excellence.”
Although Reform’s “Centre for Excellence” appears to stop short of bringing dead candidates back to life.
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Updated on 29Aug2025 to amend the date of Sharon Carby’s death
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