Oxford Reform society president accused of antisemitism over 2024 article

CW: Antisemitism

The President of Oxon Universities’ Reform Society (OURS) and a former Reform UK council candidate, Vittorio Cuneo-Flood, wrote that Satan “sow[s] confusion and spread[s] perplexity” through “the false notion of ‘Anti-Semitism’” in a 2024 article uncovered by Stand Up To Racism.

In the article, Cuneo-Flood promises to discuss “the Freemasons and the Jewish Nation, which are promoting Satan’s plan”, stating that “the truth that the State must be Catholic, acknowledge in its Politics and Economics the Divine Plan for Order, and profess the Kingship of Christ, is straightforward, clear and easily understood”. He continues to say that “the tactic of the devil, therefore, is to sow confusion and spread perplexity”, through “a false notion of tolerance by which truth and error are given equal rights, as is done when Catholicism and Rabbinic Judaism have the same rights in the eyes of the state”. He also says that this is done through “the false notion of ‘Anti-Semitism’.” These claims have been described by Stand Up To Racism as antisemitic and fall under the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism, which the University of Oxford has upheld since 2016.

The article was published in an unofficial newsletter of the Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist organisation which was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in July 2026. It is an abridgement of Denis Fahey’s book The Kingship of Christ and Organised Naturalism, which is widely recognised as antisemitic due to its promotion of conspiracies of a Jewish plot to control the world. Cuneo-Flood describes Fahey’s book as “necessary reading”.

Cuneo-Flood, a fourth-year Classics undergraduate at Oriel College and current President of OURS, organised OURS’s controversial upcoming talk with Nathan Cofnas, which will discuss the role of DEI in higher education. Cofnas is a postdoctoral researcher and self-described “race realist” at Ghent University who publicised allegations of plagiarism against Jason Arday earlier this year. Arday, who became the University of Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023 and was later cleared of wrongdoing, was found dead in August. Cofnas was subsequently suspended from his role at Ghent following concerns that he had created a hostile environment for staff and students.

The event, scheduled to be hosted at Oriel on Tuesday 17th November, has attracted significant controversy. In the past week, 49 Oriel SCR members have signed an open letter opposing the event, and a joint statement by the Student Union (SU) and Conference of Commons Rooms (CCR) “unequivocally condemns” the invitation to Cofnas. On Thursday, protestors placed a Ku Klux Klan hood and a sign reading “Racists welcome here” on the statue of Cecil Rhodes outside Oriel, prompting national attention. However, more than 170 academics from various universities, including eight at Oxford, have signed an open letter in support of the event.

Cuneo-Flood ran as a Reform UK candidate for the Carfax ward in the Oxford City Council elections in May, almost two years after publishing his article in The Recusant. In a comment to Cherwell made during his campaign, Cuneo-Flood said: “To any student who would have voted for Reform had they the chance, I say that a change from the direction in which this country is heading is only possible if those who seek the change are willing to say so and say so publicly. The river may be flowing fast, but it is the fish flowing against the current who is truly alive.”

Cherwell has contacted Cuneo-Flood and Reform UK for comment.