Last year, despite a large number of wrong ‘uns managing to run for Reform in the general election, two of its MPs being forced out under pressure and dozens of its councillors resigning or being booted out, leader Nigel Farage hit upon a brilliant idea. They should make vetting procedures less stringent!
Last July, Reform told members it was introducing a less stringent “common sense” vetting system for would-be candidates after complaints that the previous checks were too strict. The party said the updated vetting was “more proportionate than before and designed to strike the right balance between party reputation, individual freedom of expression and public confidence”.
How goes that? Well, on Teeside, Reform has just withdrawn its support for a council by-election candidate for a string of “racist, antisemitic, xenophobic” posts on X after its new “common sense” policy meant nobody vetting him looked at his account.
Mike Manning, the party’s candidate in a by-election for the Zetland ward on Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council next month, had publicly posted a string of offensive, inflammatory and frankly mad posts on the network without anyone at the party managing to notice.
Suggested Reading
Is Nigel Farage a complete and utter cult?
These include writing in November: “Jews, Muslims… there is something about circumcision that goes to their heads.” Earlier that same month, in a conversation on the platform, the former Royal Artillery serviceman wrote: “We already pay the Jizya tax, it’s called Universal Credits. They are all on it”. Jizya is an historic Islamic tax levied on non-Muslims in exchange for protection and allegiance.
He also bizarrely replied to a post wishing people Happy Kwanzaa – a cultural festival celebrated in the US by some African Americans – with: “Are you having the traditional stuffed Chimpanzee for Kwanzaa dinner? Personally I find it a bit dry, but you can smother it with smoked giraffe tongue puree to add a bit of zest. Follow it with a steamed porcupine and custard.”
Posting on Facebook, Manning has now said: “In light of the unfortunate tweets I made, for which I profusely apologise, I have now resigned from the Reform party. If I could, I would withdraw my name from the ballot.” He will, however, still appear as a Reform candidate on ballot papers because electoral law means they cannot be changed after publication.
At a press conference earlier this month, Farage said he could “promise” the party was “doing everything we can” to ensure candidates in this coming May’s elections were “fit and proper people”, saying he was “enormously angry” about mistakes in the past. Mistakes which might have been due to his decision to loosen standards, perhaps?
Most popular
Where Starmer went wrong with the Mandelson debacle
Heckling Trump in Davos
Matt Goodwin’s fall into the abyss
Mandelson is finished. Who else is going with him?
