Reform UK hit by racism scandal as councillors quit over ITV footage

Reform UK is facing a fresh crisis after an ITV undercover investigation recorded councillors and election candidates making racist, misogynistic and violent comments. Three councillors have already left the party, which said it has launched an investigation into the first disclosures aired on Wednesday.

Alan Feeney, a Reform councillor and deputy mayor of Solihull, was filmed calling Asian homeowners 'parasites' and saying no more than 1% of the British population could be non-white, according to the Guardian. Feeney, who held seats on Birmingham city council and Solihull Metropolitan borough council, said he left Reform for personal reasons. Chris Whelan said he resigned on 12 October on personal and health grounds, while Jamie Campbell remains in post.

Other footage showed Dean Miller, a Reform councillor for Bromley, discussing what he would do with people crossing the Channel illegally, and a Bromley councillor calling for King Charles to be killed. Another councillor made disturbing sexual and misogynistic remarks about female colleagues. Feeney was recorded with Campbell and Whelan discussing where a local mosque might be built, after which he said: 'Oh god, we're all going to end up in the papers.'

Reform leader Nigel Farage has postponed a major announcement due in Essex on Thursday morning as the party tries to contain the fallout, with further revelations expected in the coming days, including footage from inside its London headquarters. Farage has repeatedly pledged over the past two years to remove extremists and bigots from Reform and to introduce vetting, and the party says it checks everyone who wants to stand for election.

The party accused ITV and Hardcash Productions of using 'extreme methods of deception', saying an undercover journalist provided altered identification, a false address and false credentials to access its headquarters and computer systems. It said this occurred while Farage was being targeted by individuals who wished him harm, and that a documented security issue was omitted from the report despite the party giving notice since March. Reform added that not everyone covertly recorded is a member and that investigations have begun where behaviour was clearly inappropriate.

Labour party chair Bridget Phillipson said the racism and behaviour exposed were 'truly sickening' and called for anyone found to have made such comments to be expelled from Reform immediately. The scandal comes as Reform has been stalling in the polls and faces a separate undercover investigation into foreign donations, plus a parliamentary standards commissioner inquiry into whether Farage should have declared a £5m gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. The ITV documentary Undercover: A Year In Reform airs on 18 October.