Reform signed an initial 12-month contract with the firm, paying £120,000 for an “initial package” to cover “high-level background screening services” for up to 400 prospective parliamentary candidates and political donors.
The checks were to include criminal records, sanctions, social media, adverse media, right to work, identity verification and whether the candidate was a so-called politically exposed person. Additional candidate checks beyond the initial 400 were to be charged at £255 each, and Reform said it had given Vetting.com £144,000 in total.
A spokesman for Vetting.com said: “Some months ago, we approached all the major UK political parties offering our automated background screening services. We were delighted to be asked to help Reform.
“Everyone’s working assumption was that the election would be in the autumn, giving us the summer to complete this work. Given the explicit need for candidate consent, as well as our systems needing basic personal data like dates of birth, our automated software was not able process Reform’s candidates with the data that was provided when it was provided.
“We do not intend to litigate this in public, and we send Reform our best wishes as they shake up the UK political landscape. Mr Bloom has not had anything to do with the UK Conservative Party since 2022, and remains politically neutral.”
The controversies that have hit Reform in recent days include social media posts by Jack Aaron, a parliamentary candidate who said in 2022 that Hitler “was basically incoherent in his writing and rationale” but was “brilliant” at using specific personality traits “to inspire people into action”.
Mr Farage dismissed the row over Mr Aaron as “nonsense”, saying that acknowledging Hitler’s ability as an orator was not the same as agreeing with his views.
Another candidate, Ian Gribbin, suggested that Britain should have stayed neutral in the Second World War and said women were the “sponging gender” and are “subsidised by men to merely breathe”. Mr Gribbin has apologised for the comments and said he withdrew them unreservedly.
It also emerged that a number of Reform candidates were Facebook friends of Gary Raikes, the leader of the fascist New British Union.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
