An adviser used by Nigel Farage and others in Reform UK to boost their social media popularity has suggested that Britain would be better off had it stayed neutral in the second world war instead of fighting Nazi Germany.

Jack Anderton, who ran Farage’s hugely successful TikTok account before helping Luke Campbell become the Reform mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, also said the UK should not support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.

In a post on his personal blog about Britain’s international standing, Anderton said that in a future world of “meritocracy”, the UK could “regain” former colonies such as Australia, Canada and South Africa.

He added that the UK should copy the policy of mass incarceration carried out by El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, widely condemned as an abuse of human rights.