Reform UK Wycombe candidate defends Nigel Farage’s remarks after racism question

Reform UK’s candidate for Wycombe in the July 4 general election has defended Nigel Farage’s remarks after he was asked about alleged racism in the party.

Councillor Sarfaraz Khan Raja grilled Reform’s Richard Phoenix during a debate at Buckinghamshire New University on Monday.

Speaking from the audience at the event, he said: “Going through the Seventies at school, we were called the P-word and spat at because of immigration and the racist tone of that time.

“Your party isn’t doing very well with your rhetoric, so I want to know what you are going to do to change that rhetoric.”

The councillor also said that Wycombe and the country’s diversity was part of what made it ‘Great Britain’.

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He then added: “You are trying to stop this and using racist rhetoric for this. I don’t like that, and I think that people here don’t like that, and you should take it back to your leader.

“My dad came over in the Sixties. To this day, he is still paying his taxes and when he goes to hospital, he pays for the scans and everything. He has put money into this country.”

Cllr Raja also pointed out that far-right activist Tommy Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon – had given his support to Reform at this election.

The councillor’s address to Phoenix was one of the most applauded audience contributions of the entire hustings.

The Reform candidate replied by saying he ‘took exception’ to the councillor’s claims, denying Farage had used racist language, a claim which drew laughs and shouting from the audience.

Farage has a history of allegedly racist remarks and mostly recently sparked outrage last month with his comments that Muslims ‘do not subscribe to British values’.

Phoenix was initially shouted down by members of the audience before the chair of the debate Tim Marshall, a former BBC executive, intervened to break up the noise and let him respond.

The Reform candidate then continued by saying that he and the party could not control whether they had the support of Robinson – who has used racist language in the past.

The MP hopeful went on to elaborate on his party’s promise in its manifesto to freeze ‘all non-essential immigration’.

He said: “The aim is to make sure that we don’t put pressure on NHS waiting lists, we don’t put pressure on schools, we don’t put pressure on housing.”

The candidate added he was standing up for families with children and elderly parents, saying: “The aim is to protect the social infrastructure.”

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