Glenn Gibbins, a Reform UK councillor in Sunderland, has been handed a community order requiring 150 hours of unpaid work for posting grossly offensive material, according to The Guardian's report on the sentence.
The Guardian reported that South Tyneside magistrates imposed the sentence over a Facebook post Gibbins wrote in March 2024. The post, according to the report, contained racist comments about Nigerians. The Guardian also reported that Gibbins claimed the comments were no more than a "bit of fun."
The Guardian reported that Gibbins was voted onto Sunderland council in May. Its summary does not state the year of that vote and gives no further detail about Gibbins's role on the council.
The Guardian's excerpt does not include the full wording of the Facebook post, and it does not include the magistrates' reasoning for the sentence. The Guardian's report was written by Mark Brown, its North of England correspondent.
The Guardian's headline describes the remarks as a racist joke, while its article summary records Gibbins's own account of them. Both descriptions refer to the same comments in the report.
The report refers to the party as the Reform party, while its headline uses Reform UK. According to The Guardian, the available material includes no response from Gibbins or Reform UK.
The Guardian's piece is the only source material used for this story, so the account of the sentence, the post and the council vote rests on that single report.