Election latest: Farage on defensive after supporters caught on camera making racist, murderous and hom*ophobic remarks (2024)

By Faye Brown, political reporter

A Reform UK canvasser who used a racial slur against Rishi Sunak has called himself a "total fool" and said he has learned his lesson.

Footage from an undercover Channel 4 reporter showed Reform campaigner Andrew Parker using a discriminatory term about the prime minister, as well as saying the army should "just shoot" migrants crossing the Channel.

Police are now assessing the comments to establish if an offence has been committed, while Mr Sunak said the insult directed at him "hurts and it makes me angry".

Mr Parker, who was canvassing in Clacton, where Reform leader Nigel Farage is standing, told Sky News the sting operation had "proper taught me a lesson".

He said: "There's lots of old people like me who are sick to death of this woke agenda… but on that particular day, I was set up and set up good and proper.

"It's proper taught me a lesson - I was a total fool."

Read more here:

Nigel Farage was challenged on BBC Question Time on why he has not suspended candidates who are widely reported to have made racist or other offensive comments.

The Reform UK leader blamed a vetting company, but host Fiona Bruce stopped him and said the comments are in the public domain, in newspapers and on the internet.

He replied that he "inherited a start-up party" and that "most" candidates reported to have made offensive comments "have been disowned".

Asked why some of those accused ended up as candidates in the first place, he replied that he has "no idea" - to laughter from the audience.

He repeated that he inherited the party, meaning he was not the leader when many of these candidates were selected.

He was then asked by an audience member if he will take responsibility, "stop making excuses", and apologise.

"I'm not going to apologise," Mr Farage replied, to a smattering of applause, and repeated that the racist comments reported to have been made by an activist in his office was a "set up".

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, is facing questions on a BBC Question Time leaders' special this evening, and he was asked firstly: "What is it about you and your party that attracts racists and extremists, whether you say you want them or not?"

The question got a loud round of applause and cheers from the audience.

Mr Farage replied that he has "done more to drive the far-right out of the British politics than anyone else alive" - to a few scoffs in the audience.

He said he "took on the BNP" and has never allowed extremists to join his parties.

Addressing the Channel 4 report that showed Reform activists in his own office making racist remarks about PM and hom*ophobic remarks, Mr Farage said: "What happened over that last weekend was truly astonishing.

"A tirade of invective abuse directed at the prime minister - I mean, the whole thing was unbelievable."

But Mr Farage went on to say that it "didn't ring true", and claimed that the activist filmed in his office calling Rishi Sunak a "P***" was a plant of some kind.

"Let me tell you, from the minute he turned up in that office in Clacton and I saw him, he was acting from the very start."

Mr Farage continued to double-down when pushed, claiming that this was a "political set up of astonishing proportions".

"I want nothing to do with people like him and he has nothing to do with us. He's somebody who turned up. We didn't know who he was."

A spokesperson for Channel 4 News said: "We strongly stand by our rigorous and duly impartial journalism which speaks for itself.

"We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser.

"We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report. Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation."

One of the Green Party co-leaders is facing questions on a BBC Question Time leaders' special this evening, and he was asked about his party's migration policy.

Specifically, an audience member asked Adrian Ramsay how his party will have such an expansive and open migration policy, with immigrants being able to bring dependents, while ensuring that public services work properly.

Mr Ramsay said that it is "absolutely right and humane" that people coming to work in the UK be able to bring their spouse.

"I think we need to have a calm discussion in this country about how we approach the issue of migration, because we have always benefitted from people coming to the UK," he added, getting applause from the audience.

"We only have to listen to the horrific comments that were exposed on Channel 4 last night of people immediately around Nigel Farage to remind ourselves of what a stark future we could be heading in if people back him and Reform in this election," he said of the racist and hom*ophobic comments made by party activists.

The Green Party website talks about "a world without borders", and Mr Ramsay is asked exactly what that would mean and look like.

But he dodged the question, saying it is a "long-term vision" and is there to talk about the manifesto for this election.

"It's not something we think is realistic in this next five years," he said, and would not get a timeframe when asked.

By Gurpreet Narwan, political correspondent

Britain could soon have its most diverse parliament ever but how will voters from ethnically diverse communities behave at the ballot box?

The voting trends of such groups are incredibly complex and varied. There is no single narrative but several themes stick out from YouGov's exclusive polling for Sky News.

Most notably, the handling of the conflict in the Middle East has damaged the two major parties in the eyes of British Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. This is something the Labour Party, in particular, is very sensitive too.

Labour have historically fared well with these voters and 53% of ethnic minority voters we polled said they would vote for the party - that's a greater lead than polls we've done with the general population.

However, the Tories fare worse among ethnic minority voters on the whole - in this poll they are neck and neck with the Green Party at 14%.

But, if we drill into the detail, 32% of British Indians said they would vote Conservative - 12% higher than the general population. This is a good reminder that there is a huge variation in voting trends among communities.

Reform UK polled much worse with ethnically diverse communities than the population at large - they're on 7% - but they're still one point above the Lib Dems.

Read Gurpreet's full piece here:

That concludes tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Ali Fortescue - scroll down to read through tonight's interviews and analysis.

Our next guest on Politics Hub With Ali FortescueisClaire Ainsley, Director of the Project on Center-Left Renewal at the Progressive Policy Institute, and former adviser to Sir Keir Starmer.

We discuss what the US-UK relationship could look like under a potential Labour government and a possible Trump presidency.

She replies that the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has been "at pains" to build relationships across the Atlantic, and "all of the shadow foreign affairs team have really been out and present, not just in obviously a North America, but around the world".

He says: "I think there's definitely a readiness, on the part of other governments, to be able to have somewhat of a reset [with] the UK.

"So I think in the end, the US-UK relationship is going to be extremely important. And actually it's about common interests and the primarily that will be in the first instance about backing for NATO and obviously for Ukraine."

We bring in our panel, and former Labour cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw says: "I don't think it's any secret that probably most Labour people - actually most members of the current government - would rather work with a Democrat president than with a Trump [presidency].

"But you deal with whoever the American people deliver as president."

Should Sir Keir Starmer win the election, he will have a steep learning curve, with multiple international summits scheduled for immediately after polling day.

But Ms Ainsley says he is "ready".

"You can just see in Keir Starmer that he is ready to be prime minister if that's what the voters decide next week.

Next, we ask Labour's Sarah Jones for her reaction tothe debate between presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden last night.

She replies: "Well, obviously it was a difficult watch for lots of different reasons.

"And it will be for the American people to decide who they want to run their country.

"And it will be for whoever forms the next government to have a stronger relationship with the US as we can."

Asked if she has any concerns about Joe Biden's performance in particular, she replies: "No, it's not for me to question his ability or his performance or anything like that."

Finally, we ask Ms Jones if it will be a problem, should Donald Trump win the election, that the likely future foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said some extremely critical things about him in the past.

She replies that "the role of a Labour government, as you would expect any government to be, is to do what's right for our country and what's right for the world".

She says the Conservative government has "not played the role on the world stage that we could have done", and a Labour government would want to "build those strong relationships" and "come together" with allies to "find solutions" to the issues we face.

Next on Politics Hub With Ali Fortescue, we are hearing from Labour's shadow minister for industry and decarbonisation, Sarah Jones.

We ask first for her reaction to the racist and hom*ophobic comments made by Reform UK activists, captured on camera, and she says it's "really grim for our politics in the middle of an election to hear such awful things".

She says Nigel Farage, the party leader, should question "what kind of party" he is running, and if such sentiments are widespread within Reform UK.

"But the fact that these comments were made openly and without anybody thinking that they would be challenged is quite extraordinary. And there's no room for those kinds of views in politics.

"And I hope that Nigel Farage looks very carefully at the party that he's leading and the leadership he's providing, that he's enabling people to feel it's okay for them to say those kinds of horrible things."

Asked what exactly she thinks Mr Farage should do, Ms Jones replies: "If he is serious, which it doesn't appear that he is actually because he's flip-flopping between saying, well, these comments were wrong and then saying, well, it was implying it was some kind of set up.

"He needs to own what's happened. Take responsibility for it, and stamp anything like that out within his party.

"And I think the scrutiny that he's now under is good. It's quite right that we're looking at him and understanding what he thinks about the world and about, about all these issues."

Finally, we ask Tory candidate and former defence secretary Sir Liam Fox what he made of the debate between presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden last night.

He says he "did not find it an encouraging spectacle".

"It did not look as though Biden was properly focussed on the subjects that he was being asked about. And Donald Trump wasn't exactly sticking to the issues either."

More broadly, he notes that countries like Iran, Russia, and China will have been watching, and "they will be taking from that debate that President Biden didn't appear to be properly focussed".

"His team have said that he was perhaps unwell. Perhaps he had a cold. But if I were a Democrat in the United States today, I would be taking a long, hard look at whether there was a potential other candidate."

As election day approaches, conversations are starting to happen about who could become a caretaker Tory leader in the event the Tories lose and Rishi Sunak subsequently quits.

Former cabinet minister and current Tory candidate Sir Liam Fox has been mooted as a potential interim leader, and we ask him next if he would consider the role.

He tells Politics Hub With Ali Fortescue: "I've always thought, as a doctor, it's a very good idea not to have a post-mortem while the patient's still alive.

"So let the voters make their own judgements next Thursday. And we'll deal with the circ*mstances we have afterwards."

Pushed on if it is something he would be hypothetically comfortable with, given that his name is being bandied around, he replies: "Well, it's very flattering, but, as I say, we have to wait and let the voters make the decisions."