Stuart Prior, who recently won seats on both Essex County Council and Rochford District Council, resigned shortly after controversy arose over alleged posts involving him.The party also confirmed that it had canceled his membership.Allegations of extremist and racist online postsAccording to reports from the campaign group Hope Not Hate, Pryor was linked to social media posts that included claims describing white people as the “master race” and suggesting they have “big brains”.Other alleged comments attributed to him include derogatory and inflammatory language directed at Muslims and minorities.When confronted by the media, Pryor reportedly denied remembering the post and dismissed the claims, saying: “This is not what I would have put up.”Reform UK’s response: resignation and expulsionA spokesman for Reform UK said that Pryor informed the party that he was stepping down for “personal reasons”, adding that his membership had been immediately withdrawn.Local councils confirmed their resignations from both elected roles, triggering preparations for by-elections in the affected wards.The resignation comes just days after Reform UK made significant gains in taking control of Essex County Council from the Conservatives with a landslide victory.Pryor had won almost 40 percent of the votes in his divisions, making his sudden exit particularly disruptive to the newly formed council leadership.The incident is part of a wider wave of investigations into several newly elected councilors from different parties, with several individuals being accused of racist, anti-Semitic or extremist online material.Investigations and suspensions have been reported in various councils as political parties race to respond to the growing backlash over candidates’ past social media activity.Essex County Council and Rochford District Council have both confirmed they are coordinating to hold a by-election, with details for affected residents expected to be announced soon.