Further evidence emerges of misconduct by disgraced Reform Senedd candidate

Warning – this news article contains offensive language.

Emily Price

Questions are mounting over the robustness of Reform’s vetting procedures after further evidence emerged of past misconduct by a disgraced Senedd election candidate.

Last week, Nation.Cymru revealed a photograph of Reform’s lead candidate for the Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg constituency, Corey Edwards, performing a Nazi slut.

Leader Nigel Farage defended the Senedd candidate, saying he was impersonating Basil Fawlty – while Edwards himself claimed he had been imitating a footballer.

Further offensive social media posts and images of Edwards have since emerged and former colleagues have described him as “racist and sexist”.

In a social media post published in 2017 when Edwards was 25-years-old, he used a term which relates to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the Holy Roman Empire.

In the now deleted Facebook post tagged in Munich, Germany, Edwards had uploaded an image of the view from the front seat of a car looking out onto a road.

Alongside the photo, he wrote: “First exist at the roundabout then it’s your Third Reich,” followed by a peace emoji.

In another post published to Twitter in 2014, Edwards described Romanians as “dirty”.

Tagging the then Prime Minister David Cameron, he wrote: “Please watch channel 5’s Benefits Britain! These dirty Romanians exploiting our flawed benefits system.”

In another post to X when Edwards was 22-years-old, he described his sister as a “stupid slut.”

He wrote: “Donut [sic] understand my sister!! Wears next to no clothes then has a blanket over her, shivering and saying she’s cold! Stupid slut.”

Nation.Cymru was also sent an offensive image of Edwards which appeared to have been taken at a public festival.

In the photo, the former Conservative special advisor can be seen with flowers painted on his face whilst holding a beach bucket in one hand and a handmade sign in the other with the words: “I am not a cunt.”

It is unclear where or when the image was taken.

We spoke with several former colleagues of Edwards who described him as having a “troubled past” involving “alcohol, sex and erratic behaviour”.

We also spoke with a former employer of Edward’s who said Reform had not approached them as part of the party’s vetting process.

Following the revelation of Edwards performing a Nazi salute, Reform announced he would no longer be standing in the May 7 election due to mental health problems.

Video footage later emerged of the Reform hopeful filming himself driving while drinking from a Bud Light bottle.

‘Deeply offensive’

A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “This clearly wasn’t a one-off. These posts point to a wider pattern of deeply offensive behaviour that should have been picked up long before this individual was selected.

“That raises serious questions about Reform’s vetting process and why they had waited until the last possible moment to announce their candidates and open them up to scrutiny.

“It also highlights a serious lack of judgment at the top of the party. Nigel Farage had the opportunity to condemn this candidate for giving the Nazi salute and instead chose to defend him.

“These are not the sort of people we want running Wales.”

We asked Reform UK several questions:

*What was the vetting process Reform used when picking Senedd election candidates?

*Did Reform make contact with any of Corey Edwards’ former employers to find out when he left his roles?

*Did Reform check that his CV was accurate?

*Was Reform aware that Corey Edward’s behaviour had been erratic in some of his roles?

*Was Reform aware of the offensive social media posts published by Corey Edwards.

We did not receive a response.

On Sunday (March 29) Reform’s Chairman Zia Yusef told the BBC that the party had vetted over 8000 candidates over the last few years and that even if the party’s success rate was 99.9 per cent – “a handful will slip through”.