Reform UK’s Glenn Gibbins’ Facebook remarks against Nigerians prompt online petition
by Piyush Mathur
The Black Paper of London, UK, has launched an online petition to protest and take action in response to recently resurfaced remarks on Nigerians that Glenn Gibbins allegedly made on Facebook on March 19, 2024.
That alleged Facebook post stands deleted; in it, Gibbins, the Reform United Kingdom councillor for Hylton Castle ward in Sunderland, had expressed his surprise at the sheer number of Nigerians in Sunderland and recommended that they be melted down and filled into the potholes. A widely circulated screenshot of that deleted post is produced below.
This is a widely circulated screenshot of Glenn Gibbins’ alleged Facebook post of March 19, 2024. (Image credit: HOPE not hate)
Written on behalf of a Nigerian-heritage constituent and addressed to his or her Member of Parliament, The Black Paper’s petition condemns Gibbins’ remarks, calling them a provocation to the public to dehumanise the UK’s Nigerian and broader African community.
The petition claims that his remarks have made UK’s African community (especially Nigerians) fearful and distressed—given that he had been allowed to run for public office, which he won and now holds (even though he has been suspended since the resurfacing of the remarks).
Declaring Gibbins’ suspension an inadequate response to his resurfaced Facebook post of 2024, the petition calls for three actions: his immediate removal from his position as a councillor; a prohibition on his standing for or holding political office in the foreseeable future; and a direct, unambiguous statement from the Prime Minister reassuring people of African heritage that racism directed at their community is taken seriously as a matter of policy and principle.
The petition frames these demands as urgent steps necessary to uphold public confidence, equality and safety.
Background
Readers may note that Gibbins was declared winner as a councillor for Sunderland’s Hylton Castle ward on May 7, 2026, which is also when the voting took place; he had already been placed under suspension by May 12, 2026. The suspension had come in the wake of the controversy following HOPE not hate’s report of May 1, 2026 revealing his alleged March 19, 2024 racist remarks against Nigerians.
HOPE not hate is ‘the campaigning arm’ of the Searchlight magazine, ‘a longstanding anti-fascist research operation’ founded in 1964. As for The Black Paper, it operates through Black Paper Ltd, a private limited company incorporated in England and Wales on May 30, 2019, with an office in London. Registered under the Standard Industrial Classification category of other information technology service activities, Black Paper Ltd appears to function as an online-only media and podcast platform.
The Black Paper’s podcast related to this petition is titled ‘Beginning of the end: Is Starmer’s premiership over?’—and can be accessed via this link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OvgyrNGuFB1C9ukEC5zD1
The petition itself can be accessed via this link: https://theblackpaper.co.uk/write-to-mp.html