The man in charge of vetting Reform UK’s candidates for the next general election glorified Hitler as ‘brilliant’.
Jack Aaron, who was the party’s candidate in Welwyn Hatfield in last year’s election, also made remarks in the past calling Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad ‘gentle by nature’ and claimed Russia’s use of force in Ukraine was ‘legitimate’.
His shocking views first came to light during the election campaign which he defended by claiming there was a context and ‘nuances’ in the way he was viewing them through a psychological perspective.
Despite the controversy, Mr Aaron is currently Reform UK’s head of vetting.
The position includes studying prospective candidates’ social media outputs and advising them on what should be deleted.
It comes after more than 100 candidates were sacked or removed for offensive and racist comments.
In September, Nigel Farage declared that the party’s vetting process would be more strict to sidestep a comparable humiliation at the next election which polls at the moment suggest Reform could succeed.
A representative for Reform UK told the Guardian: ‘Mr Aaron is Jewish, and sits on his local synagogue council. His grandfather came to this country as a refugee from Vienna and much of his family on that side were murdered by Hitler’s regime.
‘Reform UK does not disclose details of our internal vetting process and nor staff members involved.’
Mr Aaron came third in Welwyn Hatfield with slightly over 13 percent of the vote and finished behind the defeated Tory minister, Grant Shapps.
According to his LinkedIn page, he is a business psychologist, consultant, YouTuber, coach, relationship counsellor and matchmaker.
It adds that he set up the World Socionics Society – a group promoting the notion that there are 16 personality types – which began as a Facebook group.
Mr Aaron declared his remarks about dictators were part of a pseudoscientific theory of personality types.
In a post on social media in 2022, Mr Aaron said Hitler was ‘brilliant in using Fe+Ni [socionics personality traits] to inspire people into action’.
Days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he said that those who called Putin insane ‘do not understand him and limit their ability to oppose him’.
He added: ‘The motivation to acquire and wield force is legitimate, and there is a whole group of personality types inclined to this, and they have historically shaped the world we live in.’
In a comment on Reddit, he said that Assad was ‘gentle by nature’ and not ‘some bloodthirsty tyrant who exercises control over his people with an iron fist’.
He also declared the Syrian oppressor had been ‘led astray’ by social stereotyping.
Mr Aaron and Reform UK have been contacted by MailOnline for comment.
Mr Aaron did not say that Hitler was ‘brilliant’. What he said was that he was brilliant at manipulating voters. His remarks have been taken out of context.
History demonstrates that propaganda and the perception of inferiority in one’s own nation were the main factors in Hitler’s ascent to power.
It’s astounding how many people overlook the details, which is why this nation is in a downward spiral.
There’s a major difference between being brilliant and being evil and Hitler was just evil. Hitler was actually extremely intelligent, he was also a monster.
Even while we agree that there have been many wicked dictators throughout history who were excellent military commanders and strategic strategists, we nevertheless believe that they were bad and committed wrongdoing.
Hitler was probably the most outstanding leader in documented history. He came from nowhere, with nothing, and created his empire through little more than his intellect and determination. Of course, it all ended in ashes, and it took the rest of the world working together to bring him down.
Genghis Khan was also a bloodthirsty leader who killed people on such a scale that it might have even changed the climate. However, history regards him as a prominent leader, yet at the time he would have been despised by his opponents, and Hitler is reckoned in just the same way.
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