Incident over reform racism “shows what the party really is,” says Tom Tugendhat

A dispute over racism against a Reform UK party election worker shows what Nigel Farage’s party “really is”, claims Tom Tugendhat.

The security minister claimed that there was a “real pattern of racist and misogynistic views” within the reform movement following a series of revelations about its activists and candidates.

To mark the occasion, Andrew Parker, a part-time actor whose skills include “secret filming”, was filmed by Channel 4 News using a racist slur against Rishi Sunak.

Mr Farage said he wanted nothing to do with candidates exposed as racists, but claimed the incident involving Mr Parker was staged, prompting Channel 4 to stick to its reporting.

Asked about the scandal, Mr Tugendhat told Times Radio: “There are many decent people who would vote for any political party and there are many decent people who would vote for reform.”

“But we’re trying to remind people what reform really means. Nigel Farage owns this company – or excuse me, he calls it a political party, but it’s a company. He owns it and has clearly done little due diligence about who he asks to spread his message.”

Mr Tugendhat went on to say there was an “absolute pattern” that went beyond individual incidents or candidates.

He added: “There is a real pattern of racist and misogynistic views in the party. And I think it is absolutely right to denounce that.”

A dozen candidates dropped

Reform has removed or replaced around a dozen candidates due to controversial comments on social media, but only one candidate has been suspended since official nominations closed earlier this month.

The party’s candidate for the Kemi Badenoch constituency resigned last week after historic comments emerged in which he urged people to vote for the BNP.

Grant StClair-Armstrong, a former Tory councillor, said there was “no excuse” for the 2010 comments and that he had offered his resignation.

Several opinion polls over the past two weeks have shown the Reform Party overtaking the Conservatives into second place, and Farage predicted his party could win a “huge” share of the vote on Thursday.