What was claimed
Newly elected Reform UK councillor George Boyd doesn’t exist.
Our verdict
False. Mr Boyd is a real person.
No, Reform UK did not field a ‘fake’ candidate in Norfolk
We’ve seen a number of posts on social media suggesting that a newly-elected Reform UK councillor in Norfolk doesn’t actually exist.
This isn’t true.
The posts question the identity of George Boyd, who was elected last week to represent the ward of Waveney Valley on Norfolk County Council.
One X post viewed more than 380,000 times claims: “Reform UK Candidate George Boyd who has been elected as a Councillor in Waveney Valley in Norfolk has been found to not exist and cannot be traced anywhere.” Similar claims have also been shared on Facebook.
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On 10 May a message from Mr Boyd was shared on South Norfolk Reform UK’s Facebook page, alongside an image which shows him alongside other campaigners.
Mr Boyd also appears in several other images shared by the page in recent months. The branch told us Mr Boyd “100% exists” and said he gave a victory speech upon his election, though we’ve been unable to find any video of this.
BBC Verify has also spoken to Mr Boyd to confirm his identity.
We’ve contacted Norfolk County Council for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen speculation about the existence of Reform UK candidates—we wrote about similarly false claims about one of its candidates standing in the General Election in 2024.