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A Reform UK candidate directs a public affairs consultancy hired to handle UK media and communications for the leadership of Republika Srpska – the pro-Putin Bosnian Serb entity whose president, Milorad Dodik, has been sanctioned by Britain for seeking to undermine the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina – Byline Times can reveal.
Kenneth Oliver Morris, 31, who is standing for the party in Erdington, Birmingham,also serves as the English co-ordinator for the Patriots Network – a transnational far-right political coalition whose Paris event later this year is billed to feature Tommy Robinson, the far-right convicted fraudster who helped inflame the Southport riots.
The findings raise questions about Nigel Farage’s claim that Reform UK operates the “most in-depth vetting procedure of any party”.
Morris is the director of public affairs consultancy Morris De Corve & Associates (MCA), the Conservative Friends of Romania, and the Centre for Geopolitical Studies. A Brexiter, he is a regular attendee at the anti-abortion March for Life rally.
Earlier this month, Bosnian Serb broadcaster RTV BN reported that MCA is “in charge of the media and communications strategy” for Republika Srpska, aimed at strengthening ties with UK political and media figures.
Formed during the Bosnian war as a confederate entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska was originally created to safeguard Serb interests. In 2022, its then-president, Željka Cvijanović, and its current president, Milorad Dodik, were sanctioned by the UK Government for “attempting to undermine the legitimacy and functionality of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina” – actions reportedly encouraged by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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A close ally of Putin, Dodik has met with him on multiple occasions, including at last year’s Valdai Discussion Club, where Putin praised him for “contributing greatly to the development of relations with Russia”. The Moscow-based forum has been variously characterised by commentators as an elite showcase for the Russian political class and as a Kremlin propaganda vehicle.
Morris’s personal politics appear to align with the Republika Srpska leadership’s ideological position.
In December last year, he reposted on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) an American Postliberal article arguing that thirty years after the Dayton Peace Agreement – which ended the Bosnian war and created the state structure Dodik has been sanctioned for undermining – Bosnia and Herzegovina’s “sovereignty remains suspended” and that “a state cannot mature while governed by an external hand”.