The Reform leader has also defended a homophobic joke that the Scottish Reform leader made
Reform leader Nigel Farage has defended a Reform candidate in the Welsh Parliament elections who performed a Nazi salute.
Corey Edwards, who is standing as a Senedd candidate in Bridgend and Vale of Glamorgan constituency in May, is pictured grinning with his right arm in the air, and a finger under his nose.
Farage dismissed Edwards’ behaviour, saying he was impersonating Basil Fawlty, from the BBC show Faulty Towers.
Speaking to ITV News, Farage said “It was a Faulty Towers impression.”
He added: “Maybe we should ban the BBC, I don’t know.”
Asked if Edwards would be kicked out of Reform or sacked as a candidate for doing a Nazi salute, Farage said: “No, he’s a human being.”
Clearly rattled by the question, Farage told the ITV journalist: “I don’t know who you want us to be, a bunch of nobodies, who’ve never said or done anything silly or funny.”
Farage then said “I get the point – it looks terrible”, before diverting the conversation to what he called a “far more serious” case of a Plaid Cymru candidate stepping down for an offensive tweet.
The Reform leader has also defended the Scottish Reform leader Malcolm Offord after a homophobic joke he made in 2018 was unearthed earlier in the week.
Offord made a joke about the Wham singer George Michael who died in 2016.
Offord said: “Fadi Fawaz, George Michael’s partner at the time of his death, takes the late singer’s ashes to a curry house after his death.
“Fawaz asks the chef to make a curry with the ashes. When asked why, Fawaz replies: “I want to feel him oozing out of my arse one last time.”
Ian Lewer from Surrey, who heard Offord tell the joke, said that it was “pretty awful” and that “even for a rugby club it was a crude, bad taste and insulting spectacle”.
Farage downplayed the joke, saying Offord told it at a “Rugby club boozy dinner in 2018, it was a private joke.”
He added: “If we are going to kick people out of public life because with their mates over a drink they said something deemed to be inappropriate, there will be no one left apart from people like Keir Starmer.”
Reacting to Edwards’ Nazi salute, the Lib Dems have called on Farage to suspend him.
Liberal Democrat Wales Spokesperson, David Chadwick MP said: “This is absolutely abhorrent. A Nazi salute is one of the most vile symbols imaginable. Anyone associated with this has no place in our politics. Nigel Farage must suspend this candidate immediately.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.