Ben Westwick #

Introduction #

Ben Westwick is a British local politician who was elected to Basildon Council in Essex in May 2024 as the councillor for the Pitsea South East ward, and who lost the Labour whip in June 2025, around thirteen months into his term, after offensive social media posts from more than a decade earlier resurfaced. The row began when Reform UK highlighted “offensive” posts the party claimed had been made by Westwick, prompting Basildon’s Labour council leader, Gavin Callaghan, to withdraw the whip and announce that Westwick would no longer represent the Labour Party on the council. The posts, made when Westwick was about nineteen years old, were reported as racist material alongside a 2012 tweet endorsing far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Westwick stayed on the council as an independent and issued a public apology the following month.

Background Information #

Westwick won his seat in May 2024, representing Pitsea South East on Basildon Council, a borough in south Essex. Alongside his council role he served as chairman of the authority’s environment and enforcement scrutiny committee. His route to Basildon politics began, by his own account, in 2015, when he moved to the town, started working locally, met his now wife and settled into family life, later writing that “For the first time, I felt rooted. I felt needed. I felt like I belonged.” The posts that ended his Labour career long predated all of that: they were made more than a decade before his election, when he was a young man of around nineteen who says he had no sense of belonging and was struggling academically.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

The controversy surfaced when Reform UK highlighted “offensive” posts that the party claimed had been made by Westwick. According to the BBC, a Twitter/X account belonging to Westwick, which had not had any new posts since 2014, included one post with a sexually explicit image and another that was racist against black people and included a monkey emoji; in 2012 the same account tweeted “@EDLTrobinson tommy Robinson for prime minister”, a reference to Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the far-right activist who founded the English Defence League. The Echo reported that the historical posts had been made on Facebook as well as X before Westwick’s election in May 2024, and that among the material posted under his name were sexually explicit images and comments that appeared to trivialise sexual harassment. Callaghan said he acted “after I was made aware of social media posts made… before he was elected in 2024”, and the whip was withdrawn just hours after the old posts surfaced.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

Callaghan moved within hours of the posts coming to light. In a statement he said: “Whilst I accept that Ben was a young man when he posted these comments and that he has changed his views on a number of issues, I do not believe it is right for him to represent the Labour Party on the council at this time.” He also thanked Westwick “for his work over the last 13 months” and said “Basildon Labour has taken decisive action to uphold standards here. I encourage other parties in the borough to do likewise.” Reform UK went further, calling for Westwick’s “immediate resignation” over what it called his “numerous offensive, racist, and deeply inappropriate comments made across his social media accounts”.

The withdrawal carried an element of political irony: only weeks earlier, Westwick had been among the councillors criticising Sarah Shields, Reform’s candidate in the upcoming Wickford Park by-election, after she was revealed to have posted a series of offensive and explicit comments of her own. Losing the whip meant Westwick was no longer obliged to vote with Labour at council meetings and was no longer part of the council’s Labour group, but it did not cost him his seat or, at least initially, his party membership: the Echo reported that he could remain a Labour Party member and a Basildon councillor while sitting as an independent, and the BBC noted that Labour had been asked about his membership status.

Current Status #

As of mid-2025, Westwick remained a councillor for Pitsea South East but sat as an independent, outside the Labour group. In July 2025 he issued a lengthy public apology to residents, saying he was “so sorry” for posts he attributed to the “misplaced anger” he had felt as a young man. “There’s no excuse for what I wrote. It was wrong,” he said. “I wouldn’t want my son to ever think those things, let alone write them online, but instead of making excuses, I’ve spent the last few months asking myself why I posted them and the truth is, I was lost.” He added that he had continued to support his Labour colleagues despite the whip’s withdrawal, telling residents, “To my residents in Pitsea South East, to my colleagues on the council, and to my family, I’m so sorry… know that I’m still here. Still working for you.”

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The resurfaced posts converted a first-term Labour councillor into an independent after just thirteen months in office, keeping his seat but stripping away the party label he was elected under and forcing a public reckoning with material he had written as a teenager. Westwick framed the episode around what he called the “misplaced anger” of his youth, warning that “when you feel invisible, when life feels rigged against you, anger creeps in. You want someone to blame,” and saying he feared the same anger and isolation is driving young men towards far-right populism. “I still see myself, that 19-year-old version, in so many young men across Basildon today,” he wrote, arguing that what the Labour council was doing could give other young men the same hope he found in the town. The case also fed a wider local political fight over candidates’ social media histories, arriving just weeks after Reform’s own by-election candidate Sarah Shields was confronted with offensive and explicit posts of her own — posts Westwick himself had criticised.