Against the backdrop of a historic performance by right-wing Reform UK in the 2025 UK local elections, one of the party’s high-profile controversial candidates has fallen short of re-election, drawing new attention to the hardline pro-Israel stances running through the party’s ranks.
Alan Mendoza, who had served as a Conservative Party councillor in Westminster before defecting to Reform UK in 2024, was unseated in Thursday’s vote for the Abbey Road ward. A top global affairs adviser to Reform UK, Mendoza also holds two prominent and divisive roles outside of electoral politics: executive director of the conservative Henry Jackson Society think tank, and president of the United Kingdom branch of the Jewish National Fund (JNF UK).
JNF UK, a registered British charity that qualifies for tax relief on all public donations, has long faced international criticism for its actions that facilitate the displacement of Palestinian communities and support for Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank—settlements widely recognized as illegal under binding international law. Internal organizational accounts reviewed by independent outlets show that between 2015 and 2018, JNF UK transferred more than £1 million ($1.36 million) to Hashomer Hachadash (HH), a Zionist militia active in the occupied Palestinian territories. Leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reclassified HH as Israel’s largest militia, marking its rapid growth from a small fringe right-wing group to a major armed actor in the region. JNF UK’s honorary patron is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mendoza’s defeat comes as Reform UK has secured unprecedented gains in this cycle of local elections. As of Friday afternoon, the party had already won control of more than 440 council seats across the country, with vote counts still ongoing in many areas. The gains have come at the cost of the centrist Labour Party, which has lost hundreds of incumbent seats and held just over 260 newly won seats at the time of reporting.
Mendoza is far from the only Reform UK candidate to have pushed extreme anti-Palestinian rhetoric this election cycle. According to recent reporting from Byline Times, another Reform candidate, evangelical pastor John Quintanilla, made incendiary remarks in a November 2025 sermon, claiming that the very concept of “the land of Palestine” is a fabricated media lie invented by former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom he incorrectly labeled an Egyptian. Quintanilla also went on to make broad anti-Islam claims, asserting that every region conquered by Islamic forces throughout history has only been left with poverty, conflict, and social darkness. Multiple other Reform UK lawmakers and candidates have publicly declared unqualified support for Israel’s actions in the Middle East amid rising international scrutiny.