Fired ‘inactive’ election candidate turns out to be dead

As reported by Politico Europe:

The right-wing political party set up by U.K. Brexiteer Nigel Farage has apologized after publicly firing one of its election candidates for being “inactive” — when the candidate had in fact died.

Reform UK admitted it didn’t realize that Tommy Cawkwell, its election candidate in York Central, had perished when he was sacked for lack of activity.

“We can’t afford to have people doing nothing in an election year,” a party spokesperson had told local news outlet the York Press.

But Cawkwell had actually died two months before.

Believe it or not, the report quoted the Reform UK spokesperson Gawain Towler as saying that he was “mortified” at the error.