Reform UK has been rocked by a fresh crisis after councillors and election candidates for the party were caught on film making graphic threats of extreme violence and expressing racist and misogynistic views.<\/p>\n
Three councillors have already stood down from the party, which said it was conducting an investigation over the first revelations from an ITV undercover investigation that aired on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Reform leader Nigel Farage<\/a> has postponed a major announcement that was due to take place in Essex on Thursday morning as the party tries to contain the fallout expected to come from further revelations in the coming days. That will include revelations from undercover filming of senior Reform politicians and officials working at its UK headquarters.<\/p>\n Farage has made repeated pledges over the last two years to rid Reform of \u201cextremists\u201d and \u201cbigots\u201d and introduce vetting. The party says it carries out vetting checks on everyone who wants to stand for election.<\/p>\n However, the first clips from ITV\u2019s year-long undercover investigation showed Alan Feeney, a Reform councillor and deputy mayor of Solihull, calling Asian homeowners \u201cparasites,\u201d and stating that \u201cno more than 1% of [the] British population can be non-white\u201d.<\/p>\n Chris Whelan resigned from Reform UK on 12 October. Photograph: ITV<\/p>\n Feeney won seats on Birmingham city council and Solihull Metropolitan borough council and was then appointed deputy mayor of Solihull. He has announced that he has left Reform \u201cfor personal reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n Other candidates were recorded making comments of extreme violence and sharing deeply misogynistic and racist views, including a Bromley councillor calling for King Charles to be killed and another councillor who made disturbing sexual and misogynistic comments about female colleagues.<\/p>\n Feeney was filmed with other candidates who went on to become councillors, Jamie Campbell and Chris Whelan, talking about where a local mosque might be built. After they make extreme racist comments in the discussion, Feeney says: \u201cOh god, we\u2019re all going to end up in the papers\u201d.<\/p>\n Chris Whelan announced he had resigned from Reform on 12 October \u201con personal and health grounds\u201d. Campbell is still in post.<\/p>\n Dean Miller, a Reform councillor for Bromley, was filmed separately making a range of comments during campaigning for the Makerfield byelection, including when he discussed what he would do with illegal immigrants crossing the Channel.<\/p>\n Reform has been attempting to pre-empt the impact from the ITV investigation, which will potentially be at its most damaging when footage from inside Reform\u2019s London HQ airs.<\/p>\n The party used a statement issued on Wednesday night to accuse ITV and Hardcash Productions of \u201cextreme methods of deception\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have infiltrated our workplace including commissioning an undercover journalist to provide altered identification documents, a false address, and false credentials so that they could be given access to Reform\u2019s headquarters, computer systems, and spy on its employees,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The party said that this came at a time when Farage and other members of Reform were \u201cbeing targeted by individuals who wished them harm and caused a security issue which was documented during the course of the undercover investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n Dean Miller, a Reform councillor for Bromley, was filmed making comments about illegal immigrants during campaigning for the Makerfield byelection. Photograph: ITV<\/p>\n \u201cThey have not included this in their report, despite being on notice since March this year. There is currently an ongoing police investigation relating to security breaches against Mr Farage, as is well known,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n Reform said that not all individuals covertly recorded by ITV are members of Reform UK, adding: \u201cWhere members, activists and councillors have clearly behaved inappropriately, investigations have commenced. In some cases, there have been suspensions and due process must be followed.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest crisis to hit the party comes at a time when it has been stalling in the polls and faces problems including the fallout from a different undercover investigation which filmed senior officials discussing a potential way to secure foreign donations to the party<\/a>.<\/p>\n