{"id":5967,"date":"2026-10-18T12:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T12:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=5967"},"modified":"2026-10-18T12:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T12:22:20","slug":"reform-uk-exposed-for-vetting-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=5967","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK Exposed For Vetting Failures\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reform UK has faced intense scrutiny this week after an investigation which exposed vetting failures and misconduct within the party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ITV Exposure recently shared an undercover investigation which exposed local councillors of Reform UK making racist and misogynist remarks on camera. The report<\/a> recorded multiple offensive remarks from party candidates and elected councillors about Muslims, people of colour, and women.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the far-right policies of Reform UK are no secret, such vulgar remarks from official candidates comes as a shock, especially after Nigel Farage previously promised to professionalise the party and improve the vetting process.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024 at Reform UK\u2019s annual conference, Farage stated<\/a> that they \u201cdon\u2019t want extremists\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t want bigots\u201d whereas two years later the party is ostensibly littered with councillors with anti-social views which are harmful to many minority groups in the UK. Farage noted that the party had \u201ca few bad apples\u201d but promised that they would be \u201clong gone […] you have my 100% promise on that\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last May, undercover ITV<\/a> reporters joined Alan Feeney on campaign in Solihull, where he was captured on camera stating that Asian families were \u201cabsolute parasites\u201d that had \u201cinfested the area\u201d. Reporters also recorded another Reform UK candidate, Chris Whelan, making derogatory comments about women. The footage shows him talking about sexually assaulting a female Reform candidate from Birmingham.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Alan Feeney and Chris Whelan were later elected as local councillors. They have only recently resigned following the break of the undercover report, both citing \u201cpersonal reasons\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ITV reporters also spoke to Reform Councillor Dean Miller of Bromley. Miller was recorded making various extreme statements, such as referring to non-white children as \u201canimals\u201d and calling for King Charles to be beheaded as he is \u201capparently […] Muslim\u201d. Miller has since claimed he was heavily medicated at the time of the statement and has resigned from his position as councillor.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There has been criticism for Reform\u2019s vetting failures in allowing candidates with racist, Islamophobic and sexist views to become candidates. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham stated<\/a> that there is \u201cno place\u201d for this kind of rhetoric and harsher lines need to be drawn. Kemi Bedanoch, Conservative leader, stated that it is \u201cvery clear that reform is attracting these people\u201d, calling for better screening processes for candidates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When ITV reporters spoke<\/a> to a former reform candidate, he shared that the party does not have \u201cany serious vetting whatsoever\u201d and described the process as an exercise for candidates to \u201chide their crimes\u201d. He stated that they are told to simply delete any problematic posts and that open support for far-right views, such as the rhetoric of Tommy Robinson, is \u201cnot a barrier\u201d to becoming a candidate.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When confronted with this, Nigel Farage still insisted<\/a> that Reform UK does not have any issues with vetting. The leader of Reform UK also doubled down, stating that he \u201ccan\u2019t vet the future comments\u201d or what his councillors might say, \u201cafter a drink\u201d. Despite Farage\u2019s previous assurances that the party was for the \u201cthe silent decent majority\u201d and that they have no place for bigots and extremists, the shared clips from ITV Exposure show that the party\u2019s membership is rife with such ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ITV is yet to release the full footage from their undercover investigations. The documentary is set to release tonight, Sunday 18th, and will hopefully bring more insights into Reform UK and its candidates’ anti-social views.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by Lily Groves<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image: Nigel Farage<\/a> by Gage Skidmore, 2018\/\/CC BY-SA 2.0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reform UK has faced intense scrutiny this week after an investigation which exposed vetting failures and misconduct within the party.  ITV Exposure recently <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":5969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,784],"tags":[444,81,450],"class_list":["post-5967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british","category-government","tag-british-politics","tag-politics","tag-reform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5968,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967\/revisions\/5968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}