Reform UK video showcases minority candidates to refute racism claims

Reform UK has shared a video showcasing its black and minority ethnic candidates in a retaliation to critics who accuse the party of racism.

Richard Tice, the Reform chairman, claimed political opponents “cannot deal” with the diversity of the party’s candidates and had resorted to “smears” as a result.

Reform has, however, ditched or suspended around a dozen candidates over offensive comments made on social media.

In a video shared by Mr Tice on Monday, a Reform candidate delivers a monologue alongside a montage of 17 of the party’s non-white candidates standing for election on July 4.

These include Ben Habib, a former MEP and the party’s deputy leader, Nagender Chindam, a businessman running against Labour on Merseyside, and Navdeep Singh, the director of a construction company.

In the video, which has been shared hundreds of times on social media, the candidate said: “Apparently we’re all racists, apparently we’re all bigots, apparently we’re all xenophobes, apparently we’re all far-Right, apparently we hate foreigners or people with different colour skin.

“And yet across this country, these people are standing for Reform – a diversity of cultures, a diversity of religions, a diversity of race. We are a diverse party that our critics hate. They call us racist because they don’t know how else to attack us.”

He added that critics of Nigel Farage’s party “call us racist because they don’t know how to deal with our policies that help ordinary people”, and promised to deliver “genuine change”, saying: “They smear us because they fear us, because they know we’re bringing back pride, decency and common sense to this country.”

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Tice said: “Some of the diversity of Reform. Our enemies cannot deal with this, so smear and label us. The people’s revolt is well under way.”

Reform has been bolstered by the return of Mr Farage as its leader earlier this month, and has overtaken the Conservatives to be second in a number of opinion polls in the past fortnight.

Reform’s manifesto, which Mr Farage and Mr Tice are calling “our contract with you”, promises to “secure Britain’s borders to protect wages, our public services and British culture and values”.

The party is advocating for an immediate freeze on non-essential immigration, leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and an end to resettling illegal immigrants in the UK.

As part of planned education reforms, any teaching in schools about British or European imperialism or slavery would be paired with an example of slavery taking place outside Europe “to ensure balance”.

Policies to “defend and promote British culture, identity and values” include replacing the Equalities Act, making St George’s Day and St David’s Day public holidays and banning Sharia law.

Last week, Zia Yusuf, a Muslim entrepreneur, donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to Reform, saying migrants who had arrived in Britain legally were dismayed that “we have lost control of our borders”.