Nigel Farage insists Reform UK racism row was a ‘whole set-up’
Nigel Farage today claimed undercover footage of a Reform UK canvasser making a racist remark about the Prime Minister was a ‘complete and total set-up’.
The Reform leader has been plunged into huge row with less than a week until the general election after party campaigners were filmed making vile remarks.
An undercover investigator recorded Reform figures in Clacton, where Mr Farage is bidding to be elected an MP, using a catalogue of racist and homophobic slurs.
This included one branding Rishi Sunak a ‘f****** p***’, while another suggested that LGBT people are ‘degenerate’.
But Mr Farage went on the offensive this afternoon as he claimed one of those being filmed was an ‘actor’.
As he came under pressure over the comments during an appearance on ITV‘s Loose Women, he claimed ‘this whole thing was a complete and total set-up’.
The Reform leader added that party figures filmed making homophobic remarks had been ‘drunk’ after watching England play football in the pub.
Nigel Farage today claimed undercover footage of a Reform UK canvasser making a racist remark about the Prime Minister was a ‘complete and total set-up’
As he came under pressure over the comments during an appearance on ITV’s Loose Women, Mr Farage claimed ‘this whole thing was a complete and total set-up’
The Reform leader has been plunged into huge row with less than a week until the general election after party campaigners were filmed making vile remarks
A furious Mr Sunak hammered Mr Farage over the conduct of Reform campaigners in Clacton.
The PM, whose grandparents were from India, said Mr Farage had ‘questions to answer’ and likened the language to that used by ‘misogynist’ Andrew Tate.
He repeated the racial slur used against him ‘because it is important to call it out for what it is’, citing the impact on his young daughters.
Reform activist Andrew Parker, who made the remark about the PM, was also secretly recorded suggesting that Channel migrants should be shot by Army recruits as ‘target practice’.
He also called for Muslims to be ejected from mosques so they can be turned into Wetherspoons pubs.
But, appearing on Loose Women shortly after Mr Sunak’s intervention, Mr Farage suggested Mr Parker was a paid actor used to discredit him.
‘It was an act right from the very start,’ he told the ITV programme.
Saying Mr Parker, the canvasser, had been ‘rough speaking’ and ‘not being himself’, Mr Farage added: ‘I have to tell you, this whole thing was a complete and total set-up, I have no doubt about that.’
Asked whether he thought Mr Parker had been paid, he said: ‘I don’t know whether he was paid or not.’
He added: ‘I’m saying it’s possible, I don’t know. Something is wrong here.’
A separate exchange, also secretly filmed by Channel 4 News in Clacton, revealed comments made by George Jones, said to run events for Mr Farage’s campaign, Rob Bates, a senior party campaigner, and Roger Gravett, Reform’s regional manager for London and candidate for Tottenham.
As a police car passed by displaying a Pride flag, Mr Jones said: ‘You see that f****** degenerate flag on the front bonnet?
‘What are the old bill doing promoting that crap? They should be out catching nonces not promoting the f******.’
Mr Farage told Loose Women the Reform UK canvassers filmed making homophobic remarks had been ‘drunken and vulgar’ and had been kicked out of the party.
He said: ‘They had watched England play football, they were in the pub, they were drunk. People when they are drunk often turn quite nasty.’
Asked to describe their language, he said it had been ‘vulgar, drunken and wrong’.
Pressed on whether he would take action against them, Mr Farage added: ‘They’re gone.’
The Channel 4 News investigation revealed Andrew Parker, said to be a Reform canvasser, advocating for Channel migrants to be shot by Army recruits
In another conversation, Mr Parker was filmed describing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a ‘f****** p***’
Earlier this morning, writing on X, Mr Farage had shared a link to Mr Parker’s acting page, saying ‘this whole episode does not add up’.
‘Andrew Parker was the man that made the astonishing racist comments that have given us so much negative coverage,’ he posted.
‘We now learn that he is an actor by profession.
‘His own website says he is ”well spoken” but from the moment he arrived in Clacton he was doing what he calls ”rough speaking”.’
But, while Mr Parker confirmed to Mail Online that he is an actor, he said he became involved with Reform UK by contacting the party himself and volunteering to do leafletting because he believes in its message, and had not mentioned that he was an actor.
He said he ‘regretted’ his ‘old school’ choice of words, saying: ‘I’m a Brit. I call a Scotsman a Scot. It’s pathetic really.’
When questioned about the fact that the p-word has more of a darker context than calling a Scotsman a ‘Scot’ he added: ‘I don’t know about that…I’m still someone who, when I go down to the takeaway, [say] ‘I’m going to down the c****y’.
‘It’s not racist. But then I’m an outdated old git.’
Mr Farage suggested Mr Parker was a paid actor used to discredit him. He told Loose Women: ‘It was an act right from the very start’
Mr Parker said he had made the comments in ‘the heat of the moment’ because he was being ‘goaded on’.
‘Of course, I regret what I said,’ he added. ‘Christ, I’m not a racist. I’ve had Muslim girlfriends. It was typical chaps-down-the-pub talk.’
Asked whether he would like to apologise, he said: ‘Of course I’m sorry. They were off-the-cuff things that everyone says.’
He said he had ‘a lot of Pakistani friends’ and ‘Muslim friends’, and that he was ‘sick to death’ of being asked about the footage.
A spokeswoman for Channel 4 News said: ‘We strongly stand by our rigorous and duly impartial journalism which speaks for itself.
‘We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser.
‘We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report. Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation.’
Reform has also yet to explain why, if he was acting, Mr Parker used his real name, which is easily discoverable online.
