Reform UK’s candidate vetting questioned after undercover ITV investigation
An undercover ITV investigation has raised fresh questions about Reform UK’s candidate vetting, after Nigel Farage said the party checks candidates to a higher standard than other parties. The report included an account from a former candidate who said he was rejected over far-right associations, then later invited to stand when the party needed someone for an election.
The candidate, Alex Lomas, said Reform first rejected him over online swearing and abusive comments about Sir Keir Starmer, then over posts supporting Tommy Robinson. He said he was later cleared and won 1,015 votes in Makerfield, around 200 fewer than the Labour winner. A vetting staff member described screening candidates for whether they might cause press problems, while Reform MP Sarah Pochin was recorded calling the party’s men chauvinistic.
- ITV’s investigation has renewed scrutiny of Reform UK’s candidate checks.
- A former candidate says he was recalled after earlier vetting rejections.
- Sarah Pochin was recorded criticising the party’s male culture.
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Reform UK is a political party led by Nigel Farage. Like other parties, it selects candidates to stand in elections, and its vetting process is intended to assess who can represent it.
Alex Lomas was a Reform candidate in Makerfield, a constituency in England. Tommy Robinson is a prominent far-right activist, while Sir Keir Starmer leads the Labour Party. Candidate screening can involve looking at a person’s public statements and associations, as well as whether they could create problems for the party.
The issue matters because candidates speak and act on a party’s behalf, and their records can affect how voters judge it. Questions about vetting also concern how consistently a party applies its standards.
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The case for
The account raises a legitimate concern that Reform UK’s vetting may be inconsistent: Lomas says he was first rejected over his conduct and associations, then invited to stand when the party needed a candidate. If accurate, that could suggest electoral pressures sometimes override standards the party says it applies, making scrutiny of its process reasonable.
The case against
The report centres partly on one former candidate’s account and an undercover recording, which may not establish how the party vets candidates generally or what checks were completed before Lomas stood. Reform could argue that vetting decisions involve judgement and changing information, and that a candidate’s eventual selection does not by itself show that the process was inadequate.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Farage is hit by fresh questions over candidate vetting after politicians demanded King’s execution and made sickening racist and sexist jokes”.