A Reform UK general election candidate who previously praised Adolf Hitler and Bashar al-Assad has been appointed to oversee the party’s candidate vetting process.
Jack Aaron, who stood for Reform UK in Welwyn Hatfield during the last election, made headlines when past comments surfaced in which he described Hitler as “brilliant” at inspiring people and referred to Assad as “gentle by nature.” He also suggested that Vladimir Putin’s use of force in Ukraine was “legitimate.”
Despite the backlash, Aaron has now been placed in charge of assessing potential candidates, including scrutinizing their social media history and advising them on content removal. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage previously pledged rigorous candidate vetting after more than 100 individuals were dropped from election races due to offensive remarks.
A spokesperson for Reform UK defended Aaron’s appointment, highlighting his Jewish heritage and family history, noting that his grandfather fled Nazi persecution in Vienna. They declined to disclose details about the party’s internal vetting process.
Criticism of the decision has emerged from opposition figures, including Labour MP Josh Simons, who remarked: “Reform are in a tailspin. First, they don’t vet candidates at all. Then they put an apologist for Putin and Assad in charge of vetting. If you can’t vet your vetter, you can’t run the country.”
Aaron, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as a business psychologist, consultant, and YouTuber, also leads the World Socionics Society, a group promoting a theory of personality types. He has previously defended his remarks, stating they were made within a psychological framework and not as endorsements of these figures.
Reform UK’s chair, Zia Yusuf, has insisted that the party is now conducting one of the most thorough vetting processes of any political organization, aiming to select candidates who are “upstanding members of society.”
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