Racism scandal hits Nigel Farage's Reform party in UK election campaign's final week

Leader distances himself from party canvassers using slurs against Muslims and immigrants

Nigel Farage said Reform supporters who expressed 'appalling sentiments' would no longer campaign for the party. EPA

The right-wing Reform UK party has been caught up in a racism scandal after campaigners were secretly filmed making offensive comments about immigrants and Muslims.

Party leader Nigel Farage distanced himself from the "appalling sentiments" expressed by Reform canvassers, as the UK's election campaign enters its final week.

An undercover Channel 4 reporter filmed one campaigner saying illegal migrants should be used as "target practice" in a conversation with a voter.

The canvasser, Andrew Parker, was also caught joking about closing mosques and using a racial slur against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

A second Reform campaigner said Mr Farage was competing in the constituency of Clacton-on-Sea because it is "proper English".

The mostly white coastal town is "not like in London when you’re a foreigner in your own country", said campaign organiser George Jones.

Reform party leader Nigel Farage is seeking election in the costal town of Clacton-on-Sea, which has a predominantly white and ageing population. Getty Images

Mr Farage said the "handful of people" caught making offensive remarks would no longer take part in the campaign.

"The appalling sentiments expressed by some in these exchanges bear no relation to my own views, those of the vast majority of our supporters or Reform UK policy," he said.

“Some of the language used was reprehensible.”

He said most Reform candidates were "just speaking like ordinary folk" and "not part of the mainstream political Oxbridge speak, we understand that".

Anti-racism group Hope Not Hate says Reform have had to drop 166 candidates this year after various scandals.

Labour leader Keir Starmer on Friday said remarks made in the undercover Reform footage were "clearly racist".

"You have to ask the question why so many people who are supporting Reform seem to be exposed in this particular way," he said.

“It’s for a leader to change his or her party, to make sure the culture is right, and the standards are understood by everybody within the party.

The scandal comes as polls show Reform pulling in substantial support, undermining the already weak position of Mr Sunak's Conservatives.

An exclusive Deltapoll survey for The National puts Reform on 17 per cent of the vote, three points behind the Conservatives on 20 per cent.

Keir Starmer's Labour is on 42 per cent, putting it on course for a landslide win and a return to power for the first time since 2010.

The poll also shows 57 per cent of people in Britain want immigration cut, with 40 per cent saying it should be "decreased a lot".

A tough border policy is the signature issue of Mr Farage's Reform party, which is pledging to cut both legal and illegal immigration.

Brexiteer-in-chief Mr Farage has used the term "invasion" to describe migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats. He says they should be forcibly returned to France.

The Conservatives say failed asylum seekers will be deported to Rwanda in a contentious and long-delayed scheme that Labour says will not work.

Labour's manifesto vows to create a new border command with counter-terror style powers to stop people smuggling.

Reform and the Conservatives have made illegal English Channel migration a key election campaign issue. Getty Images

Mr Parker, the Reform canvasser, was filmed saying in a profane rant that army recruits should take guns to the beach for "target practice".

In a conversation with a second voter, a paramedic, he said that if "any of that lot" were in an ambulance he should deny them oxygen and "use something else".

In a statement, Mr Parker said the comments were "my own personal views" and apologised.

"At no time before I was sent out to canvass did I discuss my personal views with any representative of the Reform party or Nigel Farage," he said.

"I would therefore like 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."