Reform UK ‘mortified’ after sacking election candidate who turned out to be dead
The candidate had died shortly after being selected to stand in the general election.
Reform UK say they are ‘mortified’ after sacking an inactive parliamentary candidate who later turned out to be dead.
The hard-right political party dropped York Central candidate Tommy Cawkwell after he failed to reply to their emails and phone calls.
Reform initially said they had rescinded his candidacy due to inappropriate messages on social media, but later discovered he had died following the selection process.
A Reform UK spokesman said: “Naturally I am mortified that through ignorance I did not realise the reason for his inactivity, it must have been ghastly for his family to read about it in the way it was presented in the press.’
Prior to his sacking, the party said: ‘we need candidates who are active to give people the candidates they deserve.
‘We can’t afford to have people doing nothing in an election year,’ they added.
Following news of Mr Cawkwell’s death, the spokesman said: ‘Having it being suggested that we had rescinded Mr Cawkwell’s candidacy for inappropriate social media messages by a local paper, I suggested that he was one of those candidates that had been removed for inactivity.
‘The process, if we have not heard from a candidate in a while we try and get in touch, a number of phone calls and emails are made, then if no response a final email is sent suggesting that the candidate does not respond then they will be removed.
‘Reform was not aware that Mr Cawkwell had passed away, as this happened in an interregnum between Yorkshire area managers. So with no response being made he was removed.’
Party leader Richard Tice was forced to defend his party’s vetting process this week after around a dozen election candidates were dropped due to inappropriate social media activity.
Several Reform candidates were dropped for liking tweets by former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, while others were found to have made racist remarks about Sadiq Khan and First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf.
Tice insisted that Reform was ‘the fastest party to get rid of candidates’ over inappropriate behaviour.
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