Nigel Farage confirms Reform UK activists caught making 'unacceptable' comments will be dropped from campaign

28 June 2024, 07:33 | Updated: 28 June 2024, 14:50

Nigel Farage has confirmed Reform UK activists caught making offensive comments will be dropped from campaign.

Footage of the comments being made by canvassers was taken by Channel 4 News in Clacton, where Mr Farage hopes to become an MP in next week's General Election.

Footage filmed by an undercover reporter also shows an activist saying migrants should be used as "target practice".

Slurs were also made about Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

"The appalling sentiments expressed by some in these exchanges bear no relation to my own views," said Mr Farage.

Reform UK campaigners heard making racial slurs in Channel 4 sting

The comments were made by Andrew Parker.

“I’ve always been a Tory voter,” he was filmed saying.

“But what annoys me is that f---ing P--- we’ve got in. What good is he? You tell me, you know. He’s just wet. F---ing useless.”

In a statement, Mr Parker responded: “I would like to make it clear that neither Nigel Farage personally or the Reform Party are aware of my personal views on immigration.”

Responding to the footage, the Reform UK leader said: “I am dismayed by the reported comments of a handful of people associated with my local campaign, particularly those who are volunteers.

“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.”

A second man, known to Mr Farage and linked to his campaign, called a display of the Pride flag "degenerate" and used other offensive language.

Mr Farage described that as “crass” and “drunken”, before agreeing it could be described as homophobic when probed by a reporter.

Reform UK and Farage have said that the individuals involved would no longer be part of his campaign.

It comes less than two weeks after a Reform UK parliamentary candidate resigned after social media comments emerged in which he called on people to vote for the British National Party.

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Grant StClair-Armstrong, who was standing in Kemi Badenoch’s constituency in North West Essex, was also found to have posted jokes using racial slurs and about “female hormones”, according to The Times.

Meanwhile, an LBC investigation found that Reform UK candidate Steve Chilcott said ‘Islam and Nazis are the same thing’ during a public 2017 rant.

A video of the father of one, who’s standing in the Ealing Southall constituency in West London, was posted online at the time, in which he also said Paris was “full of Islamic, immigrant, scum”.

LBC has also unearthed previously unseen footage, filmed by one of our reporters in 2018, of Mr Chilcott saying the “only reason” Islam was growing was because of a “lack of contraception”.

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