Nazi shame ex-MP becomes latest Tory defector to Reform: Nigel Farage unveils Aidan Burley, who was sacked for attending stag-do where guests in SS uniform chanted pro-Hitler slogans

A former Tory ministerial aide forced to resign over his attendance at a Nazi-themed stag do where guests wore SS uniform and chanted pro-Hitler slogans has become the latest defector to join Reform. Party leader Nigel Farage unveiled Aidan Burley with a message on X this afternoon, gleefully saying he was carrying out ‘death by a thousand defections’. A picture attached showed them shaking hands outside the party’s Christmas lunch. But the unveiling will raise eyebrows given how Mr Burley’s career as a Tory ended.  The New Zealand-born 45-year-old was MP for Cannock Chase from 2010 to 2015, when he decided not to run.  In 2011 he was stripped of his role as a parliamentary private secretary to the Transport Secretary after admitting ‘clearly inappropriate behaviour’ at a bash in a French ski resort. He was with 12 Oxford-educated friends, some of whom chanted ‘Hitler, Hitler, Hitler’, at a restaurant in a French ski resort. The ‘stag’, who was seated next to the MP, wore an SS uniform and later posed giving the Nazi salute – illegal in France. The following year Mr Burley was in the news again, after he branded the London Olympics opening ceremony ‘leftie multicultural c**p’. (…) In 2014 a Conservative Party investigation accepted his testimony that he had not been present at a bar where revellers were chanting ‘Hitler!’ and ‘Himmler!’ But the Mail On Sunday subsequently published a photograph which provided incontrovertible proof that Mr Burley was at The Frog & Roastbeef in  Val Thorens.  According to the Tory Party report, Mr Burley told the inquiry that no complaints had been made against the group when he was present.  However, at least some of the party attracted complaints. At the time, the groom Mark Fournier told the MoS: ‘We wanted to see how a Nazi outfit in the middle of France would go down. The answer is not that well at all.’ Another said: ‘We are trying to intimidate as many people as possible. A lot of people have been offended especially one guy who was both Jewish and gay.’

via guardian: Nazi shame ex-MP becomes latest Tory defector to Reform: Nigel Farage unveils Aidan Burley, who was sacked for attending stag-do where guests in SS uniform chanted pro-Hitler slogans