Reform UK racism row shows what party ‘really is’, says Tugendhat

A racism row involving a Reform UK canvasser shows what Nigel Farage’s party “really is”, Tom Tugendhat has claimed.

The security minister argued there was a “real pattern of racist and misogynistic views” in Reform following a number of revelations about its activists and candidates.

Andrew Parker, a part-time actor who lists “secret filming” among his skills, was filmed by Channel 4 News using a racial slur against Rishi Sunak.

Mr Farage has said he wanted nothing to do with Reform candidates who have been exposed as racists – but claimed the incident involving Mr Parker was staged, prompting Channel 4 to stand by its reporting.

Asked about the scandal, Mr Tugendhat told Times Radio: “There’s many decent people who vote for every political party and there’s many decent people who will vote for Reform.

“But we’re trying to remind people what Reform really is. Nigel Farage owns this company – sorry, he calls it a political party but it’s a company. He owns it and has clearly done almost no due diligence on who he’s asking to carry his message.”

Mr Tugendhat went on to say there was an “absolute pattern” that went beyond single incidents or candidates, adding: “There is a real pattern of racist and misogynistic views in the party. And I think it’s absolutely right to call it out.”

Reform has dropped and replaced around a dozen candidates for controversial comments on social media, although only one candidate has been suspended since formal nominations closed earlier this month.

The party’s candidate standing in Kemi Badenoch’s Saffron Walden 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 were “no excuses” for the remarks, made in 2010.

A number of opinion polls in the past two weeks have shown Reform overtaking the Conservatives in second place, and Mr Farage has predicted his party could win a “huge” share of the vote on Thursday.

Responding to Mr Tugendhat’s comments, a Reform spokesman said: “There are many decent people who support the Tory party, despite the fact that it has crashed the economy, presided over millions of people migrating here, despite promises to the contrary, and run down our Armed Forces while the world has got increasingly dangerous.

“We do not blame them for the corruption that lies at the heart of the Tory party, with squalid betting scandals and legions of dodgy MPs being forced to resign for unspeakable behaviour.

“We do not blame their ordinary supporters for the sustained failings of a broken and corrupt party at war with itself… We do blame people like Mr Tugendhat, who have presided over this tawdry, embarrassing and incoherent shambles that the country has had the grievous misfortune to suffer.”

Meanwhile, Mr Tugendhat refused to rule out a second Conservative leadership run if the party loses on Thursday.

Asked whether he would want to succeed Mr Sunak, he said: “Well, we’ll deal with hypotheticals in a different way. I mean, the reality is Rishi Sunak is the candidate, there’s only two candidates for prime minister, there’s Rishi Sunak and there’s Sir Keir Starmer.”

Mr Tugendhat, a Tory MP since 2015 who served under both Liz Truss and Mr Sunak, is seen as one of the leading hopes of the centrist One Nation caucus in any future leadership battle.

His majority of almost 27,000 in 2019 means that he is almost certain to be returned to the Commons next week, and even constituency-level polls forecasting a Tory wipeout predict that he will keep his seat.