Nigel Farage Wrongly Claims Simon Dudley Was Only Reform's Housing Spokesman For 2 Weeks

Nigel Farage has wrongly claimed that a senior Reform UK official sacked for offensive comments about the Grenfell tragedy was only in his post for two weeks.

Simon Dudley was dumped by Farage as the party’s housing spokesman following a furious backlash to his remarks.

A major overhaul of building regulations took place after 72 people were killed in Grenfell Tower in west London in 2017.

But in an interview with trade publication Inside Housing, Dudley said the pendulum had “swung too far the wrong way”.

He said the Grenfell fire was a “tragedy” but added: “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?”

Farage announced his sacking during a press conference on Thursday.

He said: “He’s no longer a spokesman for the party. That has been dealt with.”

In a bad-tempered interview afterwards with Sky News, Farage said: “He was appointed two weeks ago, he’s made these comments, he’s no longer there.”

But Reform actually announced Dudley had been handed the role on March 10.

In a press release, deputy leader Richard Tice said: “He understands planning, finance and regeneration. He knows how to get projects moving. That is exactly what we need. ”

Elsewhere in his Sky News interview, Farage tried to shift the blame for the row onto Tice.

He said: “I met [Dudley] once for two minutes, I don’t know the guy. Richard’s in charge of development, housing, economics. He thought he was the right person to put in place because of his considerable expertise in the area. That’s undoubted.

“But whether you’ve got expertise and media skills, where you’re not going to say something that trips yourself up, they’re different.”

Nearly 24 hours on from Farage announcing Dudley’s sacking, Tice has yet to publicly comment.

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