ANTI-RACISM campaigners condemned today Reform’s Senedd leader for appointing as his special adviser somebody who stood down after being pictured doing a Nazi salute.

Corey Edwards stood down as the far-right party’s candidate for the Pen y Bont Bro Morgannwg seat when the photo appeared.

But it has now emerged that he has been appointed as a special adviser to Reform’s Senedd party leader, Dan Thomas.

Hussain Said, Stand Up to Racism Cardiff’s spokesperson, said: “The appointment raises serious questions about standards within Reform UK.

“After being forced to stand down as a candidate in the Senedd elections for being pictured performing a Nazi salute — a symbol widely considered extremist and frankly should have ended any role in public politics for life — Corey Edwards faces no consequences.

“Instead, he is being quietly rehabilitated and rewarded.

“Nigel Farage’s previous attempts to downplay Edward’s gesture as merely being part of a Fawlty Towers skit only deepens concern about how this kind of behaviour is being treated.

“Gestures such as this should be unequivocally condemned, not be rebranded as comedy, and inevitably normalised.

“This is not a lapse in judgement of Reform UK, rather it reflects a broader pattern in which far-right imagery and symbolism are increasingly tolerated, even trivialised, within political spaces.”

Two other Reform candidates in the same constituency stood down ahead of May’s Senedd Election.

Councillor Derek Roberts cited “personal reasons,” while Owain Clatworthy left in protest against “poor internal decision making, lack of discipline and serious concerns around candidate selection.”

Reform UK were asked to confirm Mr Edwards’s appointment and comment on why it had been made, but did not respond.