Will the racism in Reform topple Nigel Farage?

Jon Sopel (0:02)

This is a Global Production.

SPEAKER_2 (0:05)

But above all, what we are going to do from today is we are going to professionalise the party, we are going to democratise the party, and those few bad apples that have crept in will be gone, will be long gone, and we will never have any of their type back in our organisation. We will have the 100% promise on that.

Jon Sopel (0:32)

My 100% promise on that. Promise made, promise broken, Mr Farage, because that was in 2024, and what we have been treated to over the past couple of nights is a slew of allegations of racist, homophobic, misogynist councillors that are still there.

Lewis Goodall (0:52)

The ITV undercover investigation is continuing to produce some extraordinary undercover footage of how reform really works from the inside. Is Nigel Farage about to get caught in its trap? Welcome to The News Agents.

SPEAKER_2 (1:14)

The News Agents.

Jon Sopel (1:15)

It's Jon.

Lewis Goodall (1:16)

It's Lewis. And the ITV Exposure Programme, a year with reform, which is going to air on Sunday, as I was saying, continues to produce some extraordinary revelations about how reform candidates and indeed the reform leadership operate on a day-to-day basis. And on Thursday night, a new set of clips and new set of allegations were brought forward, which go up to and include in various ways Nigel Farage himself. But just to recap as to what came out last night, senior party officials are heard in some of these clips saying they have to defend the indefensible on a regular basis. In one case, Reform's director of comms himself says that a reform mayoral candidate should be sacked for being a racist. So he comes out with some credit after he questioned black and Asian politicians' loyalty to Britain, but party leader Nigel Farage allowed him to stay, and there's a clip on that insisting that he simply be allowed to apologize instead. Might be worth, since we're on that, just playing that clip and hearing it.

SPEAKER_2 (2:21)

Apologize to Lam.

Lewis Goodall (2:22)

That's what he's doing.

SPEAKER_2 (2:23)

If David Lam is taken.

Lewis Goodall (2:25)

He's not too happy with it.

SPEAKER_4 (2:26)

I'm sure, but we still can do it and move on.

Lewis Goodall (2:28)

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_5 (2:30)

Tell him that properly.

SPEAKER_4 (2:31)

Yeah, you can tax him.

SPEAKER_2 (2:32)

He's showing a bit of, a bit of sock. I'm sorry, it's probably a good thing.

SPEAKER_5 (2:37)

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (2:39)

If he's in the rear-end, that's the problem.

Lewis Goodall (2:43)

The audio is not great there, but just to remind you, in terms of what they're talking about, they're talking about David Lammy.

And the person that they're talking about, the person in question, was at the time, reformed candidate to be Mayor of Hampshire, Dr. Chris Parry. And a post from Parry on social media said, that the then Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy, who of course actually was born and raised in Britain, quote, must go home to the Caribbean, where his loyalty lies. Now, I think we can all agree that there is only one word for that, and it is completely racist. It's complete racism, because clearly he would not say that about a white politician, and he's assuming that Lammy is from the Caribbean because he's black.

Jon Sopel (3:28)

It's also interesting about why Nigel Farage wants to protect this particular individual, whereas others he's been happy to be discarded with. And it sounds like the guy who was the mayoral candidate for Hampshire is posh, is well-to-do, is an ex-Royal Navy officer. And so surely we can find a way of accommodating him. If he just apologizes a bit, we'll forgive him. And you think, well, hang on, just how can we reconcile that with you saying, those few bad apples that have crept in will be gone, will be long gone, and we'll never have any of their type back in the organization, quote unquote, from Nigel Farage after the general election in 2024

I mean, that, as you say, Lewis, is straight up and down racism, you know, questioning David Lamme's patriotism, loyalty to this country, and he really needs to go back to a country he wasn't even born in.

Lewis Goodall (4:26)

Particularly sticks in the craw, you might say, when we remember that a former leader in Wales from their own party is literally in prison right now because he was basically committing treason in favor of the Russian state. So, you know, if there's a question about some people's patriotism, maybe they should look a bit closer. It's also worth saying that he did apologize to Lammy, he did show that sorrow as Farage was encouraging him to do, and he was allowed to stay as reform was mayoral candidate even after that. Might be worth noting that he was finally suspended from the party months later pending investigation over controversial comments about a Jewish neighborhood watch group. So, and the reform have not revealed or indeed publish the results of those allegations, or those investigations, I should say, so far. So it might well be that Mr. Parry had some form as it turned out in these matters.