Reform’s rotten culture is exposed

At the TUC Congress last month, I picked up a pin badge – mocked up like the Reform logo, it read ‘Racist Pr**ks’. That badge seems all the more fitting today after the torrent of revelations from ITV’s undercover investigation of Farage’s party, set to air on Sunday night.

The language is shocking, but not surprising – especially if you’ve ever had an encounter with one of their most ardent supporters online. In just a few clips that have been previewed by ITV ahead of the broadcast, elected Reform councillors are caught saying Asian people should be rounded up and deported, that the King should be decapitated because he is secretly a Muslim, and making lewd comments about women. Senior party officials were filmed saying they have to “defend the indefensible”, while MP Sarah Pochin herself admitted to an undercover reporter that some of her Reform colleagues are “chauvinistic”.

Reform has claimed this was the result of a “handful of individuals” who slipped through its vetting process. And yet, few parties have faced such a persistent pattern of revelations about their candidates and representatives.

It is not as if Farage is dealing with this type of problem for the first time, either. Reform local election candidates last year were exposed for pushing far-right conspiracies, while councillors, MEPs and candidates during Farage’s time leading UKIP described gay sex as “disgusting”, illegal immigrants as “ragheads” and said Britain should not send aid to “bongo bongo land”.

At what point does one ‘rotten apple’ become a rotten bushel over several seasons?

Voting Reform does not make someone racist or misogynistic. People often support the party because they feel let down by the political establishment and want to see change. But that makes it all the more important to scrutinise the people seeking their votes – and to ask whether Reform’s candidates and leadership are worthy of the trust placed in them.

With the possibility of Nigel Farage entering Downing Street at the next election, his persistent problems with vetting are all the more troubling. Could we really expect a Reform-led government to be any different, with the prospect of MPs making offensive remarks while ripping up the Equality Act and withdrawing Britain from the ECHR?

Sunday’s broadcast could mark the moment that Reform’s mask truly slips. If Reform wants to govern Britain, it must answer for the people it puts forward to represent it, and the values they bring with them. For the sake of the inclusive democracy we all value, we cannot afford to look the other way.

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