Reform UK Faces Fresh Crisis as Undercover Investigation Exposes Councillors’ Racist and Violent Remarks

London: Reform UK has been plunged into a new crisis after an undercover investigation by ITV captured councillors and election candidates from the party making graphic threats of extreme violence and expressing racist and misogynistic views.

Three councillors have already stepped down from the party, which has said it is conducting an investigation following the first revelations from the year-long undercover operation, broadcast on Wednesday.

Reform leader Nigel Farage postponed a major announcement scheduled to take place in Essex on Thursday morning as the party moved to contain the anticipated fallout from further disclosures expected in the coming days. These are set to include undercover footage of senior Reform politicians and officials working at the party’s UK headquarters in London.

Over the past two years, Farage has repeatedly pledged to rid Reform of “extremists” and “bigots” and to introduce vetting procedures. The party maintains that it carries out vetting checks on everyone seeking to stand for election under its banner.

However, the first clips from the investigation showed Alan Feeney, a Reform councillor and Deputy Mayor of Solihull, describing Asian homeowners as “parasites” and asserting that “no more than 1% of [the] British population can be non-white.” Feeney, who won seats on both Birmingham City Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council before being appointed Deputy Mayor of Solihull, has since announced that he has left Reform “for personal reasons.”

Another councillor, Chris Whelan, announced that he had resigned from the party on 12 October “on personal and health grounds.”

Dean Miller, a Reform councillor for Bromley, was separately filmed making a range of remarks while campaigning in the Makerfield by-election, including comments on what he would do with illegal migrants crossing the English Channel.

Reform has sought to pre-empt the impact of the investigation, which is expected to be at its most damaging when footage recorded inside the party’s London headquarters is broadcast. In a statement issued on Wednesday night, the party accused ITV and Hardcash Productions of employing “extreme methods of deception.”

“They have infiltrated our workplace including commissioning an undercover journalist to provide altered identification documents, a false address, and false credentials so that they could be given access to Reform’s headquarters, computer systems, and spy on its employees,” the statement said.

The party further claimed that this occurred at a time when Farage and other Reform members were being targeted by individuals who wished them harm, creating a security issue that it said was documented during the course of the undercover investigation. “They have not included this in their report, despite being on notice since March this year. There is currently an ongoing police investigation relating to security breaches against Mr Farage, as is well known,” the statement added.

Reform also stated that not all individuals covertly recorded by ITV are members of the party. “Where members, activists and councillors have clearly behaved inappropriately, investigations have commenced. In some cases, there have been suspensions and due process must be followed,” it said.

The latest controversy comes as the party has been stalling in opinion polls and contending with other difficulties, including the fallout from a separate undercover investigation that filmed senior officials discussing a possible means of securing foreign donations. The outcome is also awaited of an inquiry by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards into whether Farage should have declared a £5 million gift from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.

Responding to the revelations, Bridget Phillipson MP, Chair of the Labour Party, said: “The extreme racism and appalling behaviour exposed by this investigation is truly sickening. Nigel Farage can’t shrug these latest revelations off as being a few bad apples. Every Reform councillor, council candidate or party member found to have made such despicable comments must be thrown out of Reform UK immediately.”