Nigel Farage addresses racist comments at Lincolnshire community centre

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has addressed comments made by a campaigner who was filmed saying migrants crossing the Channel should be used as “target practice”. Speaking at a Reform UK event held in Lincolnshire tonight (Thursday, June 27) Mr Farage spoke out following a Channel 4 News investigation which captured Reform UK activist Andrew Parker talking about people coming ashore at Deal in Kent, at the eastern end of the English Channel.

The canvasser also used a racial slur against Mr Sunak and labelled Islam a “disgusting cult”. At the Hubberts Bridge Community Centre in Boston, Mr Farage, who was with local candidate and former Reform leader, Richard Tice, said: “We’ve had one or two candidates that have said things they shouldn’t have said. In most cases they’re just speaking like ordinary folk.

“They’re not part of the mainstream political Oxbridge speak, we understand that. In some cases one or two people let us down and we let them go. Well, compare that to the international price fixing and betting ring that is the modern day Conservative Party.”

Mr Tice also said that the comments captured by an undercover Channel 4 news reporter during the Reform campaign were “inappropriate”. He said: “We put a statement out and it’s all self-explanatory in the statement.

“The reality is that we’re a fast-growing movement, and when you’ve got unpaid volunteers, some people behave inappropriately. And they’re gone.”

Responding officially earlier to the report, Mr Farage said in a statement: “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.

“Reform UK is a party for everybody who believes in Britain. I am proud that our supporters, candidates and national campaign team come from all backgrounds and identities.

“I would be interested to know whether Channel 4 is subjecting the grassroots volunteers of all the political parties to similar subterfuges, or whether Reform UK has been singled out for special attention.”

Mr Parker also said in a statement, sent to Channel 4 News: “I would like to make it clear that neither Nigel Farage personally or the Reform Party are aware of my personal views on immigration.”

He added: “I have never discussed immigration with either Nigel Farage or the Reform Party and that any comments made by me during those recordings are my own personal views on any subject I commented on. At no time before I was sent out to canvass did I discuss my personal views with any representative of the Reform Party UK or Nigel Farage .

“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. I offered to help the Reform Party on their canvassing as I believe that they are the only party that offer the UK voter a practical solution to the illegal immigration problem that we have in the UK.”