Nigel Farage eviscerates ITV undercover hit on Reform UK – ‘they should spy on Tories!’.TA
EXCLUSIVE: The Reform UK leader, speaking exclusively to the Daily Express, dismissed fears people with racist views were particularly attracted to his party.
Nigel Farage speaks to Essex County Council leader Peter Harris (Image: Will Colebourne/the Press Association)
Nigel Farage slammed the “establishment” for their latest attack on Reform as he claimed Tory members hold worse views. An ITV News investigation found councillors and candidates within Reform UK had used racist language. In one excerpt, black children were referred to as “animals”, while in another a Reform member said his area had become “infested” with Asian families.
But the Reform UK leader, speaking exclusively to the Daily Express, dismissed fears that people with racist views were particularly attracted to his party. And he suggested sending spies into the Tory party.
Mr Farage revealed ITV News “infiltrated” the party’s headquarters, and only “got me telling a joke” and a “press officer using a swear word”. He told the Daily Express: “They wouldn’t do it to anybody else, would they? I mean, they’ve spent a year on this, goodness knows how much money.
“The worst miscreant, whose quotes have been all over the BBC and everywhere, was, of course, a long-term Tory councillor. But he was never followed undercover as a Tory councillor, was he? But he has been in Reform.
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“They have met literally hundreds of people. They’ve been to all the by-elections. They’ve spoken to hundreds of people. They’ve tried to provoke conversations, and they’ve managed to find a handful of people who said unpleasant things, which we have acted on already.”
He continued: “The idea that this is somehow a failure of our vetting is absolutely for the birds. You can’t vet what people are going to say in the future. You can’t vet what people say to each other.
“They would not do this to any other party. And it’s yet another example, after Channel 4 and all the rest of it. I mean, this literally is the establishment trying to do everything they can to throw us out of the picture.”
Asked if Reform was attracting the wrong sort of character, Mr Farage said: “Not compared to the Conservative Party, no.
“The worst miscreant was a long-term Conservative. A Kemi supporter.”
Mr Farage said his party vets “much more heavily than other parties”.
Asked how Reform can convince voters it doesn’t have a racism problem, Mr Farage said: “That’s what they’re trying to do. That’s exactly what they – I tell you what, maybe what I’ll do is I’ll commission a team of undercover [operatives], and we’ll go and speak to a thousand Tory councillors. You’ll find worse.
“You’ll find it everywhere.
“You’ll find it in the pub tonight. It’s people, and particularly if they’re provoking conversation. Not everyone’s been to Oxford University. Not everyone’s been to Eton.
“Not everyone expresses themselves in very carefully formulated language. People just say what they blooming-well think.
“The massive investment that is going in to try and discredit an entire political movement on a handful of people here and a handful of people there tells you, frankly, all you need to know.”
The Reform UK leader insisted his party will rise back up through the polls.
Nigel Farage speaks to Daily Express Home Affairs Editor Michael Knowles (Image: STEVE FINN PHOTOGRAPHY)
He said: “This is all just absolute nonsense.
“Think how many MPs have been to prison. Think how many, you know, ex-MPs have done goodness knows what over the years. I mean, the effective Deputy Prime Minister is a convicted fraudster.
“What is more serious? Some bloke representing a small district council who says something that is unpleasant, or the Deputy Prime Minister being a convicted fraudster? It’s about scale.”
Asked how he will convince voters a Reform Government wouldn’t be scandal after scandal, Mr Farage said: “It depends how it’s portrayed. It depends how it’s portrayed.”
He added: “We are with the biggest political party in Britain by membership. We’ve got millions of supporters. You know, I mean you could go down the street now and find someone who says he’s a Reform voter and you find he’s a convicted murderer. Would you judge me by him? I hope not.”
In the run-up to the 2026 local election, Councillor Alan Feeney, the deputy mayor of Solihull, was filmed undercover with Reform local election candidates Jamie Campbell and Chris Whelan.
In one instance, Whelan was filmed talking about a female Reform candidate where he said “‘If she’d have given me a hug, I’d have f****** fingered her”.
When talking about another female Reform candidate, Whelan said: “F*** me, if she was my daughter, it would still be bath night on a Thursday… Time for your bath… I’ll wash you properly this time. Yes. Dirty bastard”.
Feeney also called Asian homeowners “parasites”.
He was caught on camera adding: “I’d be saying no more than 1% of [the] British population can be non-white… you’d need a proper nuclear option, like literally drag them out of their homes, stick them on planes and f*** them off to Pakistan, which you’ll never do in a month of Sundays… You just have to make it a country they don’t want to be in… I mean you’re getting to a point where you ban Muslims from standing from public office”.
Asked by reporters about the investigation during a visit to the North West, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “We’ve allowed a poison into our politics in recent years, and it’s time to draw a line under it.
“In fact, I praised the Leader of the Opposition (Kemi Badenoch) in the House of Commons yesterday afternoon, who herself drew a line at her party conference between her party and that type of politics, and we all need to call it out more.
“I’m pleased ITV has done this.
“There is no place for any form of racism, antisemitism, discrimination in British politics, and we all should be relentless in repeating that and taking the firmest possible action.
“And I hope the Reform Party will take immediate and firm action against those who’ve been revealed to be making these abhorrent comments.”
Andy Burnham accused of ‘inciting disorder’ as 781 migrants cross Channel in single day
Andy Burnham is accused of inciting disorder after a record 781 migrants crossed the Channel in one day, while Reform UK warns numbers are accelerating.
Andy Burnham accused of ‘inciting disorder’ over migrant crisis (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham has been accused of inciting disorder across the country because of the way his Government is handling the migration crisis.
It comes after his administration suffered its worst day on record, with 781 illegal migrants breaking into the country in unlawful Channel crossings in a single day.
The record-breaking influx also saw two boats arrive on UK shores undetected, sparking fury in Westminster and triggering threats of protests at migrant sites.
Horrendous footage and pictures, seen in Thursday’s Daily Express, also show what appears to be a man abandoning a child in the water so he can climb aboard a crowded dinghy.
Reform UK’s Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf warned that numbers were “accelerating” despite Home Office claims that the overall total had reduced.
He told Good Morning Britain that the UK has had “north of 210,000 people turn up on our beaches illegally in the past eight years” and warned “people’s lives are being turned upside down”.
Those comments were in relation to the village of Piddington, which recently hosted a symbolic referendum to leave the UK in protest against the housing of migrants at a nearby base.
Mr Yusuf said residents “are terrified that they are about to be outnumbered 10 to 1 by illegal migrant men”.
Home Office data shows a decline in the number of crossings this year, but critics say the overall figure remains far too high, with an insufficient number of people being sent back to their countries of origin.
Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf accuses Andy Burnham of inciting disorder (Image: Getty)
In a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, Mr Yusuf said: “Andy Burnham is inciting disorder in Britain by wielding the state’s monopoly on violence to impose unvetted men from countries like Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea into local communities.”
He added: “This is unprecedented. I am worried the country is heading to a dark place.”
His remarks refer to footage showing coaches used to transfer migrants from the coast to immigration centres being accompanied by a police escort.
There have been mounting protests by masked men near locations used to hold migrants, though police support for security reasons is not uncommon.
