Corey Edwards, the Reform UK candidate for the Welsh Senedd elections in May, has stepped down from the campaign, citing mental health issues, after a photograph emerged showing him apparently making a Nazi salute. The party announced his decision on Friday, a day after leader Nigel Farage defended Edwards, suggesting he might have been impersonating Basil Fawlty from the sitcom Fawlty Towers.
The photograph, published by Nation.Cymru, shows Edwards raising his right arm with a finger of his left hand under his nose. Edwards, a former adviser to Conservative Welsh secretary David TC Davies, initially claimed he was imitating Welsh goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey, who made a similar gesture in 2019. Hennessey later said he did not know what a Nazi salute was.
A Reform UK Wales spokesperson said: 'Corey Edwards has informed us that he is stepping down as a candidate for the Senedd election this May, citing issues with his mental health. We wish him well for the future and hope his privacy can be respected at this difficult time.'
The controversy is the latest in a series of candidate selection issues for Reform UK. In Scotland, four candidates for the May elections stood down or were suspended within a week of being announced. Among them, Stuart Niven was suspended after it emerged he had been struck off as a company director, while three others shared offensive or far-right content on social media.
In Wales, the party's sole Senedd member, Laura Anne Jones, was suspended from the parliament for two weeks in November after using an offensive Chinese slur in a WhatsApp group. The party has faced criticism over its candidate vetting process.
