Exclusive: Undercover inside Reform’s campaign – evidence of homophobia and canvasser's racism
Watch the full report by @darshnasonipic.twitter.com/NqH2RSDy6X
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) June 27, 2024
Reform UK activists have been secretly filmed making racist and homophobic slurs while campaigning for Nigel Farage.
The evidence was uncovered by an undercover Channel 4 News reporter who joined the party’s canvassers in Clacton.
One piece of footage showed Reform UK Andrew Parker advocating shooting people arriving in the UK by small boats across the Channel.
Parker was also filmed calling Rishi Sunak a “fucking P***” and suggesting Reform UK should “kick Muslims out of mosques and turn them into Wetherspoons”.
A senior Farage aide was also shown, as a police car displaying a Pride flag passed by, saying: “You see that fucking degenerate flag on the front bonnet? What are the old bill doing promoting that crap? They should be out catching nonces not promoting the fuckers.”
The same man also said that if it was in government, the party would turn the police into “paramilitaries” and “bring back the noose”.
In a statement, Farage said: “I am dismayed by the reported comments of a handful of people associated with my local campaign, particularly those who are volunteers. They will no longer be with the campaign.
“The appalling sentiments expressed by some in these exchanges bear no relation to my own views, those of the vast majority of our supporters or Reform UK policy. Some of the language used was reprehensible.”
Andrew Parker said: ” would like to make it clear that neither Nigel Farage personally or the Reform Party are aware of my personal views on immigration.
“I have never discussed Immigration with either Nigel Farage or the Reform Party and that any comments made by me during those recordings are my own personal views on any subject I commented on. At no time before I was sent out to canvass did I discuss my personal views with any representative of the Reform Party or Nigel Farage.
“I would therefore like to apologise profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute as this was not my intention.”