Reform UK activist filmed using racial slur to describe Rishi Sunak while campaigning for Nigel Farage
A Reform UK activist described prime minister Rishi Sunak as a “f****** p***” while campaigning for the party’s leader Nigel Farage.
Party activist Andrew Parker was caught using the racial slur while canvassing in Clacton, Essex, where Mr Farage is standing as an MP in the general election.
Mr Farage told Channel 4 News that he was “dismayed” and he and some other objectionable candidates “will no longer be with the campaign”.
It comes after Reform UK dropped its candidate in Basingstoke, Hampshire, after it was revealed he was previously a member of the British National Party.
Mr Parker, who was filmed as part of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News, said: “I’ve always been a Tory voter. But what annoys me is that f****** p*** we’ve got in. What good is he? You tell me, you know. He’s just wet. F****** useless”.
Mr Farage said he was “dismayed” by the comments and claimed the activist had been removed from his party’s local campaign.
Mr Parker also went on to suggest army recruits should carry out “target practice” on migrants arriving on small boats across the English Channel.
Talking to a prospective voter on the doorstep, he said: “You’ve got Deal, haven’t you. The place near Dover. Army recruitment. Get the young recruits there, yeah, with guns on the f****** beach, target practice. F****** just shoot them.
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“That is what the Greeks done. You know about that. The Greeks shot a load. Ringfence Bradfordstan. Round the f****** up. Do that f****** lot as well. And you’ve got these b******s running our country. You must be f****** joking mate.”
He later told a man who said he was a paramedic: “Do us a favour. You’re a paramedic. Any of that f****** lot get in your ambulance, just don’t put oxygen on the b******. Use something else. You know where I’m coming from.”
Long-time party activist George Jones, who organises events for Mr Farage, was also caught describing the Pride flag as “degenerate” and LGBT+ people “nonces”.
In the covertly filmed exchange, Mr Jones reacted angrily when he saw a police car driving past a pub displaying an LGBT flag.
He 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 fuckers.”
Going on to explain Reform’s criminal justice policies, he said the party would “bring back the noose” and added: “Our police officers will be paramilitaries, they won’t be police,” and that the party should “bring back the noose”.
On Thursday, Reform UK candidate Raymond Saint was dropped after it emerged that he had been on a list of members of the British National party.
The upstart party has been dogged by controversy, with pro-Hitler and pro-Putin comments made by a number of candidates over the last few months. Mr Farage blamed a third-party vetting company for failing to do its job properly.
Ian Gribbin, who was standing in Bexhill and Battle, said Britain would have been “far better” off if it had “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality” instead of fighting the Nazis.
Mr Farage told Channel 4 News: “I am dismayed by the reported comments of a handful of people associated with my local campaign, particularly those who are volunteers. They will no longer be with the campaign.
“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.”
Mr Parker told the broadcaster: “I would like to make it clear that neither Nigel Farage personally or the Reform Party are aware of my personal views on immigration.
“I would therefore like to apologise profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute as this was not my intention.”