Reform UK has targeted working-class areas such as Woodhouse in Sheffield
04:00, 30 Apr 2026
Nathaniel Menday is standing for Reform UK in Woodhouse, Sheffield(Image: Twitter)
Residents in a Sheffield ward have said Reform UK has a “good chance” of winning next week’s local election despite the candidate labelling the Nazis “visionaries”.
After local candidate Andy Hizzard defected from Reform UK to Restore Britain, Nathaniel Menday was named as the Reform UK candidate for the Woodhouse ward in Sheffield. It has previously been reported that Menday made several highly controversial comments. On social media, he replied to a picture of Berlin’s Olympiastadion, used for the 1936 Olympic Games, and wrote: “Whichever group of people built this must have been real visionaries!”
Menday has also described himself as an ethno-nationalist and in 2023 suggested “Jewish people in the West” were responsible for the antisemitism they suffered because they “overwhelmingly favour open borders”. He said: “Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind”.
Menday subsequently apologised for bringing Reform “into disrepute”, adding: “I am not antisemitic nor do I have any Nazi sympathies.” Menday admitted he has “flirted with what could reasonably be referred to as ‘far-right ideology’, but ultimately I have come to reject its core tenets”.
Sarah, a Reform UK member, has canvassed in Woodhouse on behalf of the party. She said that she has never met and does not personally know Menday. Sarah said: “I have been telling people we have got a candidate, but how can I talk about him if I don’t personally know him. People come to me because I have stood before and I know what’s going off, but I cannot say anything. Before this point, I was saying he needs to come and show his face in the village. He needs to be seen.”
On his comment, she said she “does not know the context” in which they were said and “wouldn’t want to make any assumptions about him”.
However, she said residents in the ward have been supportive of Reform and believes that many will vote for the party, irrespective of Menday’s comments. “Nobody has said anything to me about what he has said,” she added. “A lot of people in this community are not as online as the story and know nothing about it. I think Reform has got a good chance in Woodhouse, regardless of what he has said.”
Of the dozen people Yorkshire Live spoke to, only Sarah and her partner, both Reform members and campaigners, were aware of Menday’s comments. Many did not even know there was a Reform candidate standing.
One resident said they will vote for Restore Britain, with Dorne Carr, an independent aligned with the party standing. “They say it how it is,” they said. On Menday, another resident said they have “not heard from him or much about him”.
Rita Karlson, who moved to Woodhouse as a child and returned seven years ago, said she doesn’t think the comments will “affect people around here because half of them are on drugs”. She said everyone has their own opinion, and that “you can offend anybody these days by what you say”. She added: “All these boat people, if I say anything about that to my daughter, she gets offended.”
The Sheffield Liberal Democrats, whose candidate Willis Marshall is up for reelection this term, have called for Reform UK to stand Menday down before the election. Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts also called for the party to drop Menday, adding: “This is no time in this country for people having views of this kind. I hope the people of Woodhouse show him the exit door on May 7.”
The full list of candidates in the Woodhouse ward is here:
- ALLSEBROOK, Danny Alan, Labour and Co-operative
- CARR, Dorne, Independent
- CRAPPER, Joshua Andrew, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
- MARSHALL, Willis James, Liberal Democrats
- MENDAY, Nathaniel, Reform UK
- NICKLIN, Hannah Kate, Green
- WINSTONE, Steven, Conservative
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