Reform UK activist filmed making racist comments about Rishi Sunak
Reform UK activist filmed making racist comments about Rishi Sunak
Andrew Parker, who is canvassing in Clacton, also described Islam as ‘a cult’ and suggested asylum seekers should be shot
A Reform UK activist in the constituency where Nigel Farage is standing has been secretly filmed making extremely racist comments about Rishi Sunak, as well as using Islamophobic and other offensive language.
Farage said he was “dismayed” by the views expressed by Andrew Parker, a Reform canvasser, who was filmed as part of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News.
The channel also secretly filmed George Jones, a longtime party activist who organises events for Farage, making homophobic comments, calling the Pride flag “degenerate” and LGBT people “nonces”.
The emergence of the footage, filming of which concluded last week, comes on the same day that Reform dropped an election candidate in another seat, after the Guardian informed the party that Raymond Saint had been on a list of members of the British National party.
That's like shooting fish in a barrel. A harder challenge would be to find someone in Reform who isn't awful.
It's basically a 4chan /pol/ meetup disguised as a political party.
It's the fish that keeps shooting themselves.
“We’re fucking kicking all the Muslims out of the mosques and turning them into Wetherspoon’s.”
What a silly billy. You can’t turn Muslims into Wetherspoons.
I suppose this is the challenges for Reform. UKIP seemed to get a pass on much of its crankiness by being seen as a largely single issue protest party.
But now Breixt it is “done” and Reform has to present itself as a fully formed alternative to the traditional parties of governance. Which it turn means it will be under much greater scrutiny, and really challenge the appeal of the party outside it’s core.
I'm surprised there hasn't been more of this. The extreme parties (both left and right) tend to attract the even more extreme to their banner.
The winners have to tread a careful path between placating their members and appealing to the general populace. I think this is one of the reasons why Labour will win, the centre ground is where the leaders of our country should be, people tend to want "normality" what ever that is.
I also think we should have PR instead of FPTP so the extremes at least get a voice in parliament rather than throwing bricks from the sidelines.
I didn't think that the Tory wipeout, where they become the third largest party, was likely to happen. Pollsters never seem to have been able to solve the shy Tory effect.
However, seeing Reform implode like this is making me more certain that the Torys will still be the official opposition. Rishi will also benefit from the sympathy factor from being the direct target of the abuse. He also gets to look more statesmanlike when condemning gutter politics from Reform.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Reform UK activist in the constituency where Nigel Farage is standing has been secretly filmed making extremely racist comments about Rishi Sunak, as well as using Islamophobic and other offensive language.
Farage said he was “dismayed” by the views expressed by Andrew Parker, a Reform canvasser, who was filmed as part of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News.
The channel also secretly filmed George Jones, a longtime party activist who organises events for Farage, making homophobic comments, calling the Pride flag “degenerate” and LGBT people “nonces”.
The most serious comments uncovered by Channel 4 News involved Parker, who was covertly filmed making them while canvassing and travelling by car around Clacton, where Farage is the favourite to unseat the incumbent Conservative.
Telling the reporter, who was posing as an activist, to “emphasise ‘illegal’” if discussing migration with minority ethnic voters, Parker called Islam “a cult”, saying: “We’re fucking kicking all the Muslims out of the mosques and turning them into Wetherspoon’s.”
In another covertly filmed exchange, at a pub in Clacton, Jones reacts with scorn when he sees a police car going past displaying a Pride flag.
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