Reform election hopefuls sacked

REFORM UK has dropped two election candidates and suspended a third after a Mail on Sunday probe uncovered a series of offensive remarks – including the suggestion that ‘brown babies’ came from a particular sex act.

Pete Addis, who was standing in South Shropshire, has posted a slew of offensive material in recent years. In perhaps his most vulgar outburst, the refrigeration company boss said in December 2022: ‘B*m s*x, this is where brown babies come from!’

The investigation also unearthed comments by Amodio Amato, running in Stevenage, who declared London is an ‘Islamic State’ and that there would be ‘a Muslim army run by Sadiq Khan’.

The semi-retired mechanical engineer, 69, also claimed First Minister Humza Yousaf is ‘most certainly a Hamas terrorist supporter’.

Meanwhile, Iris Leask, 69, representing Reform in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, has bizarrely called for meat-eaters to ‘eat other humans’ and for the human race to be ‘obliterated’.

The computer company director has also said that former defence secretary Ben Wallace ‘should be left to die’ in Afghanistan.

Last night, a Reform UK spokesman said: ‘Amodio Amato and Pete Addis have been removed from their candidature for comments that clearly breach any basic idea of decency. Iris Leask has been suspended pending further investigation.’

Reform UK – the successor to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party – has enjoyed a surge in the polls which has led to panic in No 10 that Mr Farage could make a political comeback.

Today’s revelations come after we last week published details of candidates with questionable pasts, including Garry Sutherland, standing in Exeter East, who was found guilty last year of kicking a dog in a Dorset country lane.

Also highlighted was Amelia Randall, standing in Herne Bay in Kent. She is a fortune teller who sold tarot card readings on the website OnlyFans, which predominantly makes its money from selling amateur pornography.