Reform UK General Secretary Resigns Amid Fresh Storm Over Candidate Vetting

Reform UK’s general secretary has stepped down as Nigel Farage’s party continues to be rocked by turmoil over questions surrounding its vetting practices and its push to professionalise.

Tom Waterhouse’s departure follows the charging of George Madgwick, Reform UK’s leader on Hampshire county council, with 12 counts of rape and one count of distributing indecent images of a child.

Waterhouse, a public affairs executive who had previously worked across the Westminster thinktank world and for the Crown Estate, was recruited in August last year. Labour dismissed him as Reform’s “latest fall guy” for the party’s internal troubles.

A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Tom Waterhouse has left his role with Reform UK. The party leader has now appointed an interim general secretary.”

The exit deals a blow to Reform’s professionalisation drive, a project at the centre of which Waterhouse had been. He had been closely involved in a major recruitment drive, bankrolled by wealthy donors, as well as the selection of candidates for a future general election.

Waterhouse had also taken part in Reform’s internal investigation into two of its senior officials, James Orr and Dan Jukes, alongside Adam Richardson, the party’s legal secretary and a long-serving associate of Farage. That inquiry cleared Orr and Jukes of breaching laws that prohibit foreign donations, even though the matter remains under police investigation.

However, the recent Madgwick case severely embarrassed the party and once more thrust Reform’s candidate vetting process into the spotlight. That process is now run by Paul Nuttall, the party’s deputy chair and former Ukip leader, yet Waterhouse’s resignation reflects the continuing organisational turmoil within Reform.

Bridget Phillipson, the chair of the Labour party, said: “As the scandals pile up for Reform, everyone is being forced to take the blame except Nigel Farage. Their general secretary is the latest fall guy, but we all know nobody in Reform makes a decision without Farage’s approval.

“Farage is yet to come clean on what he knew about the arrest of his senior campaign manager and leader in Hampshire, who is now facing 35 very serious charges. And he tried to cover up a secret £5m ‘gift’ from a crypto billionaire.”

The Reform leader has made little effort to conceal his frustration at continued failures in candidate vetting and other matters.

“I wasn’t very happy,” Farage said when asked why Madgwick, who was arrested in January over several alleged sexual offences, remained in his role almost 10 months later. Madgwick denies any wrongdoing.

Farage last month also blamed “staff incompetence” for a poor turnout and a half-empty hall at a Reform UK economic policy launch event in London.

Staff at Reform’s Millbank headquarters were told on Wednesday that Waterhouse was leaving. He was among several figures seen as assets to Reform’s pursuit of power who have recently parted ways with the party or been sidelined.

Tim Montgomerie, a high-profile activist who defected from the Conservatives, was suspended in August after criticising Farage’s decision not to attend the count when he won the Clacton byelection.

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