Britain’s reform candidate says he would ‘slaughter’ migrants

A UK Reform candidate said he would “slaughter” migrants arriving in small boats and “have their families taken away” in a vile social media post discovered just days before the general election.

Leslie Lilley, who is set to contest Southend East & Rochford, made the threats on the official Facebook account he uses to run his local campaign.

In a post in June 2020, Lilley responded to the news of a small boat arriving in Dover, saying: “I hope one day I’m near one of these bastards. I won’t run away. I will slaughter them and then take their families. out.”

That same month, Lilley, now 70, railed against “more scum coming into Britain”, adding: “I hope your family gets robbed, beaten or attacked”.

The comments come as Nigel Farage faces pressure to ban candidates with extreme views after the party leader said Reform UK was “in a bind” over the vetting.

Farage said Reform had paid a “large sum of money” to a vetting agency but claimed the party had been let down.

He told LBC Radio: “Have we had any problems with one or two candidates? Yes we have.

“We paid a large sum of money to a well-known inspection company, but they did not do the work.

“We are politically attached to each other, and that has caused us problems. And I accept that and I’m sorry.”

One of the candidates, Jack Aaron, who is running against Defense Secretary Grant Shapps in Welwyn Hatfield, was in the news for comments about Hitler’s personality traits.

Mr Aaron said in a social media post in 2022 that Hitler was “basically incoherent in his writing and reasoning” but was “brilliant” at using specific personality traits “to inspire people to action”.

Asked about the suggestion that Mr Aaron thought Hitler was “brilliant”, Mr Farage said: “This is complete nonsense. It’s a bit like… if you were to ask me, was Hitler a good public speaker? And I say yes – suddenly I’m an advocate.

“This is nonsense.”

Mr Aaron told The Times: “Yes, Hitler was as brilliant as he was completely evil. How is that controversial to say, given that he was able to incite the Germans to such destructive acts, including killing many members of my own family?

“As a psychologist, I strongly believe in separating intelligence and talent from morality so that we can adequately diagnose problems and help people.”

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