REFORM UK leader Richard Tice has said that a potential candidate for Boris Johnson’s former seat in Henley-on-Thames has been sacked for posting offensive images on social media.

David Carpin has been dropped after posting messages on X featuring images showing a rainbow flag being swept into a drain and one of an EU flag with the stars replaced with Nazi swastikas.

Tice told GB News: “He has posted some inappropriate and frankly daft stuff. We’re a serious political party. And I’ve told our candidates you don’t put daft stuff up there, inappropriate stuff, and so he’s an ex-candidate.

“I fired him, he’s not a candidate, and that’s the point. I’m a serious leader that will take decisions immediately when they need to be taken. He’s gone. He’s done, finished.”

In a discussion with Bev Turner and Andrew Pierce, he continued: “People need to learn a lesson that you’ve got freedom of expression. That’s the joy of being in a democracy like ours, but I’ve also got the freedom of choice as to who’s going to be my candidates, and he’s not going to be one of them.

“He was vetted before this and then at some point he’s done something daft, written something daft and posted it post the vetting procedure.

“They’ve all been told, don’t do this stuff. And if you do, you’re going to be fired. It’s as simple as that. We’ve got lots more candidates, great candidates applying, and people need to understand this.”

He added: “It’s the same in many seats, whether it’s red wall seats, or whether it’s seats like Henley-on-Thames, it actually doesn’t matter about the seat.

“It’s actually about people behaving in the right way, in an appropriate way, if you want to be elected to be a Member of parliament.”