Farage says Reform UK has been ‘stitched up’ over candidate vetting – social media reacts

Suggestions made by Nigel Farage that Reform UK was “stitched up” by a firm it contracted to vet candidates have prompted a hilarious response on social media.

The party has been hit by a series of revelations about the online activities of some of its would-be MPs, from links to a British fascist leader to suggestions the UK should have remained neutral in the fight against the Nazis and admiration of Hitler’s “brilliant” ability to inspire action.

Mr Farage said Reform had paid a “large sum of money” to the vetting firm, but claimed the party has been let down.

The Telegraph reported that Vetting.Com had been paid £144,000 to weed out parliamentary candidates with extremist views.

The firm told the newspaper that its working assumption had been that it would have had the summer to complete the work, but Rishi Sunak called the General Election for July 4, rather than the autumn, as most in Westminster had expected.

Mr Farage told LBC Radio: “Have we had trouble with one or two candidates? Yes, we have.

“We paid a large sum of money to a well-known vetting company, and they didn’t do the work.

“We have been stitched up politically, and that’s given us problems. And I accept that and I’m sorry for that.”

Hitler

He dismissed as “utter nonsense” questions about candidate Jack Aaron, who is standing against Defence Secretary Grant Shapps in Welwyn Hatfield, over comments about Hitler’s personality traits.

Mr Aaron said in a social media post in 2022 that Hitler “was basically incoherent in his writing and rationale” but was “brilliant” at using specific personality traits “to inspire people into action”.

Asked about the suggestion that Mr Aaron thought Hitler was “brilliant”, Mr Farage said: “This is utter nonsense. It’s rather like… if you asked me, you know, was Hitler a good public speaker? And I say yes – suddenly I’m a supporter.

“This is nonsense.”