Christopher Adegoke, standing in the Hucknall West ward for Nottinghamshire County Council in the upcoming 1 May elections, is a director at KOT Educational Services & Tours Ltd. The Nigerian-based company, which also has an office in Nottingham, acts as a placement agency for international students seeking to study in the UK, reports MailOnline.

According to the company’s website, KOT offers “visa counselling and support services” to help students obtain the necessary study visas. Adegoke is also listed on the British Council’s official database of certified counsellors who promote UK universities and support international applicants.

The candidate’s business interests appear to clash with the public stance of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has repeatedly railed against rising numbers of foreign students. Farage has accused British universities of being “absolutely drunk on foreign money” and has called for the number of sponsored study visas to be “slashed.”

Adegoke’s background and public statements have added to growing questions around Reform UK’s candidate selection process. In a 2022 post on social media, Adegoke shared content supporting slavery reparations for African nations—an issue that Farage and other senior Reform figures have categorically dismissed as “nonsense” and “ridiculous.”

Speaking in a campaign video posted on Facebook, Adegoke defended both his business and his party affiliation, stating he has lived in Nottinghamshire since 2010 and originally came to the UK as a business migrant.

“I grew up in Africa where I co-founded a children’s initative that later evolved into an education placement agency since 1998,” he said. “We have placed legitimate international students into UK universities and colleges. These students have contributed £10m in tuition fees and £3.5m in living costs to the UK economy.”

Defending his political alignment, he said: “Let me be clear, Reform UK is not against legal migration – what it firmly opposes is illegal migration.”

Adegoke also said he had “proudly passed a rigorous selection process” to become a Reform UK candidate.

A spokesperson for the party responded to criticism by turning the spotlight on the Conservatives: “The Tories are the architects of the failed mass immigration experiment. They opened the borders and allowed millions in.

“The public know that only Reform UK can be trusted to freeze immigration and stop the boats.”

A Conservative source, however, cast doubt on Reform UK’s consistency, telling MailOnline: “Nigel Farage personally promised that Reform UK vetting was to a standard never done before.

“So either this was another lie or Reform has developed some new soft-touch migration policies they don’t want the country to know about.”

 [Vanguard]