Ex-Reform UK candidate apologises over comments after being removed from Shropshire contest
A former Shropshire candidate for the Reform UK has apologised for offensive remarks made on social media that led to him being removed as the party's candidate at the next General Election, but says his comments were "taken out of context".
Pete Addis, a refrigeration engineer from Ludlow, had been standing as the party's candidate in South Shropshire, to compete for the seat soon to be vacated by Tory Philip Dunne MP, who is stepping down.
However, Reform UK has now dropped Mr Addis as its candidate after remarks came to light following a national newspaper investigation at the weekend.
The Mail on Sunday discovered Mr Addis had said that Sir David Attenborough should be “killed off” and had been banned from Facebook for using a racist slur to describe Chinese people. He also made and had said "brown babies" were the result of anal sex.
He had also made sexist remarks about Labour MP Angela Rayner and a female journalist.
Mr Addis told the Shropshire Star that his comments had been “taken out of context”.
He said: “These comments were made in jest. This thing about David Attenborough was taken out of context.”
He also insisted he was not racist. “No, I'm not. I used the word Ch**** to describe food as somebody shared something on Facebook that asked what food you ate when growing up and I said Indian and Ch****.”
He added: "Obviously, I am sorry if people have been offended by my comments but they were taken out of context.”
He said he “accepted” the party's decision to remove him from their list of parliamentary candidates but said he would still be supporting Reform UK at the next General Election.
Mr Addis is one of numerous candidates to have been removed from the party's list of election candidates recently.
Recently Amodio Amato was the party's candidate in Stevenage but was removed after he made a series of posts suggesting "a Muslim army run by Sadiq Khan" was taking over London.
While Iris Leask has been suspended as the candidate in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine pending an investigation after it is alleged she said former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace "should be left to die" in Afghanistan.
Defending his party's vetting procedure, leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice told the BBC on Monday morning that it was more difficult for "a small, entrepreneurial fast-growing party" to vet its candidates.
"We haven't got £30m-£40m a year like the Tory Party and the Labour Party have got to do their vetting," he said. "We operate on a fraction of that. That's why we welcome the extra scrutiny."
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