Reform faces questions over candidate vetting after undercover filming
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Reform UK is facing further questions about its vetting procedures for candidates, after undercover filming broadcast by ITV News, external.
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In the film, gathered over the course of a year, an undercover reporter is advised by a local party chairman to delete social media posts supportive of far-right activist Tommy Robinson, before being encouraged to apply to stand to be a councillor for the party.
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It also shows a former Reform candidate claiming he failed the party's vetting process twice but was still allowed to stand to be a councillor. Reform denies the individual failed vetting in the first place.
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Reform MP Robert Jenrick said all political parties had "bad apples".
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Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, he said he "didn't like what I heard in the documentary" but argued that the party had acted quickly, removing or suspending those in the undercover film.
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"I don't accept this happens any more in Reform than in any other party," he added.
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In a statement, Reform said that "from time to time, a handful of individuals who do not share our values will initially make it through vetting" but added: "This is the same for all organisations."
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It follows undercover filming broadcast on Wednesday night, which showed some of Reform's councillors and candidates using racist, violent and sexist language.
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The party said: "There is no room for racism in Reform UK. We always respect due process of investigations and whilst these are ongoing it would not be appropriate to comment on individual cases."
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Reform also accused the ITV investigation of "extreme methods of deception" and using false information to obtain an undercover role in Reform's headquarters.
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Jenrick said he believed the undercover reporters had wanted to find evidence of party leader Nigel Farage "acting in an inappropriate way" but had not succeeded.
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Two years ago, Reform leader Nigel Farage vowed to vet candidates more "rigorously", after the party dropped a series of candidates following reports they had made offensive or racist comments.
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However, the party has continued to face questions over the strength of its vetting processes.
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Speaking on Thursday, before the latest filming was broadcast, Farage told BBC Look East his party vetted "to a much higher standard than other parties" but "you can't vet for future comments".
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Farage defends Reform's vetting after councillors filmed making racist comments Reform councillor suspended from prison job after 'despicable' comments ITV News says one of its undercover reporters was asked if he would consider standing to be a councillor, after spending time leafleting with Reform activists.
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He meets with the chairman of a local Reform branch in Chester, Ian Frost, who describes the meeting as "the first stage" of the vetting process.
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After the reporter says he has previously posted in support of Robinson on social media, Frost advises him to delete the posts.
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"Anything where you've got, things, Tommy Robinson or anything like that, okay, I would delete the account and I'd start again," Frost adds.
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Farage has said Robinson would not be allowed to join Reform.
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Frost later suggests the undercover reporter could apply to stand for the party, saying: "You might become a councillor.
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You might then want to go to the MP route.
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So, social media, yeah. And apply." Frost told ITV News he thought the reporter was a genuine candidate and gave him the benefit of the doubt. He added that it was not fair to judge people on a single conversation and he had since left Reform for unrelated reasons.
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In another part of the film, a former Reform candidate - Alex Lomas - claims he failed the party's vetting process twice, including for sharing social media posts from Robinson.
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However, Lomas says a few days after he failed for the second time he was asked to stand for the party.
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"On my second application, I got declined on the Friday, I got an email from them on the Tuesday saying you've passed vetting," he is recorded as saying.
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"I said, well, I think you better check with your paperwork, mate, because I've just failed on Friday.
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Now, you're saying I've passed it, I've not changed anything.
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"And then I got a phone call a few days later. Hi, will you stand for Reform UK?
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I'm like, yeah okay." He stood for Reform in local elections in Oldham in May but did not win a seat on the council. The BBC has not been able to contact Lomas and he did not respond to requests for comment from ITV News.
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Reform denies Lomas failed vetting in the first place.
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ITV's undercover report also shows Farage ruling a controversial mayoral candidate Dr Chris Parry – who said the then Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy should go home to the Caribbean – should be made to apologise, but not stand down.
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In a conversation at Reform's headquarters, the party's director of communications Ed Sumner suggests Farage is "protecting" Parry.
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In response Farage says: "It's showing a bit of sorrow."
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In a separate conversation several weeks earlier, where Farage was not present, Sumner is recorded saying Parry is "clearly a racist" and "needs to go".
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After apologising to Lammy in January, Parry was allowed to remain Reform's mayoral candidate in Hampshire and the Solent until he was later suspended in March "pending investigation", following comments about a Jewish voluntary patrol service.
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Parry told the BBC there was never an investigation and he has since left the party.
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He said: "I would urge people to go back to the original contexts and tweets to see what was said and why.
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They related to reparations and failures by the police and government.
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"They will see I always exercise my right to criticise anyone in power or the public eye, whom I judge to be acting against the interests of the British people." In the report, Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin is filmed telling the undercover reporter that the party needed "women press officers".
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"Thy are so chauvinistic...
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They just exclude you if you are a woman.
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There's a bit of a male issue going on." Asked about her comments, Jenrick said Pochin was a "valued colleague" but added: "It is not my experience that the party has problems of that kind." Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said: "These latest shocking and deeply disturbing revelations go right to the top of Reform UK.
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"Nigel Farage needs to wake up and realise the buck stops with him.
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He also must urgently explain why he allegedly stood by a blatant racist instead of kicking him out of his party.
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"Time and again Farage has had every opportunity to demonstrate leadership and get Reform's house in order and every single time he has failed." Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story?
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