Reform UK drops three candidates over offensive comments

Since the start of the election campaign, Reform has faced persistent questions over its selection of candidates, after numerous examples of offensive social media posts emerged.

All the main parties have had to drop potential parliamentary candidates over inappropriate comments, however this has been the case for more Reform candidates than other parties.

The party has blamed a company it hired to conduct background checks on would-be candidates, claiming it failed to carry out vetting before the election was called.

Mr Farage also faced angry questions from the audience about a recording broadcast by Channel 4 which showed Andrew Parker, a canvasser for Reform UK, using a racist term about Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

On Friday Mr Sunak said it made him “angry” that his daughters had to see a Reform campaigner using racist language about him.

Mr Farage described the comments as a “tirade of invective abuse” but suggested the man may have been paid and claimed it was “a political setup of astonishing proportions”.

Channel 4 News said it stood by its “rigorous and duly impartial journalism”, adding that it met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters and had not paid him any money.

In a statement, Mr Parker said he wanted to “apologise profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute as this was not my intention”.

Essex Police have said they are “urgently assessing” comments in the programme “to establish if there are any criminal offences”.