Reform Councillors Filmed Making Racist Remarks
Councillors and election candidates were filmed over a year by undercover reporters making racist, violent and misogynistic remarks. A councillor who is deputy mayor of Solihull called Asian homeowners “absolute parasites” and said no more than one per cent of the British population “can be non-white”. Three councillors have left the party. Nigel Farage has postponed an announcement due in Essex this morning.
Eight figures appear in the first instalment, and the party says all are under investigation and have either resigned or been suspended; the number of people the reporters spoke to in total has not been disclosed. The response has been to attack the method rather than defend the content, accusing the programme-makers of “extreme methods of deception” for giving an undercover journalist altered identification documents and a false address to get inside the London headquarters, and saying this happened while its leader faced threats that caused a security problem. There is an existing police investigation into security breaches concerning Mr Farage. Footage from inside that headquarters has not yet been broadcast, which is why the planned announcement has been pulled. Mr Farage said two years ago that he did not want a “sectarian or racially based party in any way at all” and that he would be “absolutely ruthless” about it. Ed Davey called the film “chilling”; Bridget Phillipson called it “truly sickening”; the Conservatives said it was proof the leader had failed. A standards ruling on a £5m gift is still awaited.