Farage forced to sack top Reform UK official after another vetting failure

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He moved to fire party general-secretary Tom Waterhouse over vetting failures, which allowed a candidate facing serious criminal charges to become leader of Hampshire county council.

Reform insiders claim that Mr Waterhouse, who officially left to spend more time with his family, failed to inform Mr Farage that George Madgwick had been arrested in January this year before being charged with 35 criminal offences, including 12 counts of rape.

Mr Madgwick was elected in May and subsequently became council leader, a post from which he has now stepped down. He is due to appear in court later this month.

As a result of the vetting failure, several leading Reform figures, including Suella Braverman and Zia Yusuf, were pictured alongside Mr Madgwick in campaign material, to their subsequent embarrassment.

Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said that Mr Waterhouse was the latest fall-guy for Reform’s unending scandals, which have seen it drop to third place in opinion polls.

The party is facing both Commons and police inquiries into some of the donations it, and Mr Farage personally, have received from foreign-based crypto magnates, and speculation is growing at Westminster that the Reform leader may no longer be up for the fight.

Another council leader, Ashfield’s Jason Zadrozny, has also been forced to resign after being convicted of fraud and income tax evasion.

Mr Zadrozny has stepped down as leader and resigned from the Ashfield Independents party and could now face jail for stealing thousands of pounds from Nottinghamshire county council.