Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has decided to withdraw support for three candidates due to racist statements made by the candidates, according to British media reports. Even though nominations for Thursday’s vote have closed, the three candidates will still appear on the ballot papers under Reform UK.
One of the candidates, Edward Oakenfull, who is running in central England, made comments on social media last year about the IQ of people from Sub-Saharan Africa. Oakenfull claimed that his comments were taken out of context. Another candidate, Robert Lomas, was quoted in The Times as saying that black people need to “get off their asses” and stop acting “like savages.” The party stated that these statements were also taken out of context. Candidate Leslie Lilley faced criticism on social media for referring to migrants who crossed the Channel illegally as “scum.”
Farage publicly disavowed these three candidates, stating that he wanted “nothing to do with them” when confronted with their controversial statements on the BBC. Farage, who declared his candidacy in early June, admitted that he has not had enough time to thoroughly vet all the candidates. He stated that he wants to focus on issues such as immigration policy and Brexit negotiations rather than dealing with individual candidates’ controversial statements.
