Party leader Nigel Farage had vowed to professionalise vetting process
A Reform UK whistleblower has said that the party’s vetting process for candidates is ‘expensive, flawed and unprofessional’, after a number of its candidates hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Party leader Nigel Farage has vowed to professionalise vetting process after a number of his candidates made the headlines for all the wrong reasons, including old social media posts in which they expressed racist and islamophhobic views.
Now a party insider says that the vetting process used for candidates in the Senedd elections in Wales is flawed.
Nation Cymru reports that the party insider is involved in ‘full candidate assessment and training process’ for the upcoming Welsh election.
They told the site: “What I witnessed was not a merit-based system designed to find the best local representatives – but a centrally controlled process that favours insiders, parachuted candidates and personal connections over local knowledge and competence.
“Several high-placed candidates have been moved into top spots despite having no real connection to the areas they are supposed to represent.”
The party insider also said that local applicants “with strong community roots” had been pushed down and excluded in favour of people with “old party ties or personal connections to senior figures”.
So much for professionalising vetting.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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