Reform UK vetting faces fresh questions as ITV documentary nears
A year-long undercover investigation has put Reform UK vetting back at the centre of the political agenda. The full documentary lands on Sunday night.
ITV Exposure’s “Undercover: A Year in Reform” placed a reporter inside the party over the course of a year. Its extracts have dominated the week. The latest Reform UK vetting questions concern how the party chooses its candidates, and how its leadership handled one accused of racism.
What the undercover filming appears to show
According to the BBC’s account, an undercover reporter told Ian Frost he had posted support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson on social media. Frost chaired a Reform branch in Chester at the time. In the recording, Frost advises him to delete the account and start again. He then encourages him to apply to stand as a councillor.
Frost told ITV he believed he was speaking to a genuine candidate. People should not be judged on one conversation, he said, and he has since left Reform for unrelated reasons.
Alex Lomas, a former Reform candidate, claims in the film that he failed Reform UK vetting twice, including over posts sharing Robinson’s content. Days after the second failure, he says, the party asked him to stand. He stood in Oldham in May without winning a seat. Reform denies that Lomas failed vetting in the first place. ITV says he did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier extracts showed Reform councillors and candidates using racist, violent and sexist language. They include Alan Feeney, a Solihull councillor and deputy mayor. The party says it has removed or suspended those featured.
The exchange at the top of the party
The most politically charged sequence in the Reform UK vetting footage involves Nigel Farage and Ed Sumner, his director of communications. Their subject is Dr Chris Parry, then the party’s mayoral candidate for Hampshire and the Solent. Parry had written that David Lammy, then deputy prime minister, should “go home to the Caribbean”. Labour condemned the remark as racist, and Parry later apologised.
In the filmed conversation reported by the Independent, Farage insists Parry must apologise and move on. Sumner tells him: “You’re protecting him.” The Guardian later revealed further comments, and Reform suspended Parry in March. He has since left the party. He told the BBC there was never an investigation, and urged people to review the original context of his posts.
Reform UK vetting: how the party and its opponents have responded
Reform says it has “improved and prioritised” its vetting. It says there is “no room for racism” in the party, and accuses ITV of “extreme methods of deception”. Robert Jenrick defended his leader and the Reform UK vetting record on BBC Radio 4. Farage had “probably done more than almost anybody to stand against racism and the far right”, he argued, and all parties have “bad apples”.
Labour’s Bridget Phillipson called the revelations “shocking and deeply disturbing”. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Reform “need to sort these issues out”. In the footage, Reform MP Sarah Pochin describes senior officials as chauvinistic. The party said it took her concerns seriously.
The documentary airs on ITV1 on Sunday evening. Whatever it adds, the week has already made Reform UK vetting a public test. The party first promised rigorous checks two years ago. Whether those promises have been kept is now the question.