Nigel Farage promised Britain that Reform UK would be professionalised, its candidates rigorously vetted and the “bad apples” removed.
“You have the 100% promise on that,” he said after being elected to Parliament in 2024.
ITV Exposure has now released the full result of a year spent secretly filming inside the party, from grassroots campaigning and candidate selection to elected councillors and Reform’s Westminster headquarters.
What its reporters recorded goes considerably further than one embarrassing candidate or a few offensive social-media posts.
The 90-minute documentary, Undercover: A Year in Reform, features elected Reform councillors making racist and sexually explicit remarks, activists discussing violence, an aspiring MP proposing “concentration camps” for Channel migrants, councillors talking about concealing controversial plans until after winning power and senior party staff privately discussing how they “defend the indefensible”.
It also takes viewers inside Reform headquarters as officials deal with allegations of racism against their own candidates.
In one of the most damaging sequences, Reform’s director of communications describes mayoral candidate Chris Parry as “clearly a racist” and says he should be removed. Yet when Farage becomes involved, Parry remains and is instead told to apologise.
The communications director then tells Farage directly:
“You’re protecting him.”
‘No more than 1% of British population can be non-white’
Some of ITV’s most disturbing footage came from people who had already been elected under the Reform banner.
Alan Feeney, who defected from the Conservatives and was elected as a Reform councillor in Solihull before becoming deputy mayor, was secretly recorded repeatedly talking about Muslims and Asian residents.
According to ITV, Feeney called Asian people “parasites”, claimed Britain needed to become a country Muslims did not want to live in and said:
“I’d be saying no more than 1% of British population can be non-white.”
Discussing what he called a “nuclear option”, he said:
“Literally drag them out of their homes, stick them on planes and f*** them off to Pakistan.”
Feeney also spoke about the political difficulty of pursuing such policies openly before winning an election.
“You have to get hardline and I think they will,” he said.
“But you’ve just got to be a bit savvy to get the broad appeal.”
In an earlier recording he made the point even more explicitly:
“You’ve just got to be a bit savvy to get the broad appeal, then once you’re in you can do what you want.”
Feeney has since left Reform and resigned as deputy mayor. He was also suspended from his job as a senior prison officer.
Black children described as ‘animals’
Dean Miller, who was elected as a Reform councillor in Bromley, was also secretly filmed during the investigation.
Miller claimed white people had been “ethnically cleansed out of London” and complained about the growth of Black communities in Bromley.
Talking about children he blamed for vandalism, he said:
“Like all the ethnic f****** kids, they’re not white, they’re all f****** black, and they’re like f****** animals.”
He then added:
“It’s horrible to say it. I’m not racist.”
In another extraordinary passage, Miller claimed King Charles was secretly Muslim and described that as “traitorous”.
He then said:
“Cut the c***’s head off, sorry.”
Miller later told ITV that he had been heavily medicated because of a chronic pain condition at the time the comments were made. He has since resigned from Reform.
Councillor talks of sending the army ‘street-by-street, house-by-house’
Raymond Dunning, another Reform councillor who told the undercover team he had been asked to stand for Parliament, discussed what he would do if Reform reached government.
Dunning said he would deport people he believed should not be in Britain, before suggesting young men could be trained by the military to assist.
“18-30 year old young lads, train them up in the army in insurgency tactics, so they can go street-by-street, house-by-house picking the c**** up,” he said.
When another person warned that such a policy would cause “massive civil unrest”, Dunning replied:
“We’re going to have civil unrest if we don’t deal with it.”
Dunning has subsequently left Reform.
‘Don’t even announce it, just do it’
ITV also secretly filmed Hounslow Reform councillors Adam Parkins and David Kerr discussing the need for Reform to appear politically acceptable before winning power.
Kerr said the party could not afford to alienate moderate voters:
“You need to seem palatable to everyone to get them, to get [the majority].”
Parkins replied:
“The stuff that people feel uncomfortable with, don’t even announce it, just do it.”
He added:
“We just need to get f****** elected, that’s all that really matters.
“We won’t necessarily say what we are doing, part of the point is to not [say].”
The documentary later records the pair discussing grooming gangs in violent terms. Parkins said that if he were prime minister he would be prepared to carry out executions in the Downing Street Rose Garden.
Reform told ITV that Parkins and Kerr were not among those being investigated following the programme’s revelations.
Both remained Reform councillors when ITV published its latest update.
Aspiring Reform MP calls for ‘concentration camps’
The final section of the documentary introduces Jason Powell, a Reform activist who had travelled to Clacton to campaign for Farage and hoped to become a parliamentary candidate.
Powell told the undercover reporter that people arriving across the Channel should be put into what he repeatedly called “concentration camps”.
“Anyone who comes across on the Channel, as an example, in the first week of election, all concentration camps and everyone who comes across on the Channel, they’re in there,” he said.
“You just need to be rounded up, every single last one of them, and sent to those concentration camps.”
Powell also said:
“You cannot be a Muslim and British. It’s like oil and water.”
Perhaps the most significant part came when the reporter asked about his candidacy.
Powell said he had an interview within days and believed he had already passed Reform’s vetting because he had reached the second stage of the process.
ITV said Powell had not ultimately been selected as a parliamentary candidate, although he told the programme there could be an opportunity to try again.
Reform suspended him after ITV revealed the footage.
ITV gets inside Reform HQ
The documentary does not confine its investigation to activists and local councillors.
One undercover reporter, using the name Sophie, successfully secured employment as a press officer inside Reform’s Westminster operation.
That gave ITV access to conversations involving senior communications staff as the party dealt with controversies involving candidates and councillors.
Before beginning the job, she attended Reform’s Christmas party, where she met Sarah Pochin, then the party’s only female MP.
Pochin told her:
“We so need women press officers.”
She then described colleagues as:
“So f****** chauvinistic.”
Pochin said she publicly defended the culture of the party when appearing on television, saying everyone was welcoming, before telling the undercover reporter:
“They just exclude you if you’re a woman. There’s a bit of a male issue going on.”
Robert Jenrick has since rejected the suggestion that Reform is chauvinistic, arguing that his own experience of the party has been different.
‘You have to start defending the indefensible’
At the same party, Reform communications director Ed Sumner gave the prospective press officer a warning about the job.
“You have to start defending the indefensible,” he said.
Asked what he meant, another press officer gave the example of Chris Parry.
Parry, a former Rear Admiral and Reform’s candidate for mayor of Hampshire and the Solent, had caused controversy after saying London-born Labour politician David Lammy should “go home to the Caribbean where his true loyalties lie”.
He had also questioned the loyalty of a number of other Black and Muslim politicians.
Behind closed doors, Sumner was filmed saying Parry was “clearly a racist” and indicating that he expected him to be removed.
But three weeks later, Parry was still there.
When journalists raised the controversy publicly, Farage defended Parry’s service to Britain, describing him as “intensely patriotic” while saying his comments about Lammy had gone “over the top”.
Inside headquarters, the press team then worked on an apology.
Farage was secretly recorded telling staff:
“He must apologise to Lammy.”
When told Parry was unhappy with the wording, Farage replied:
“He must do it and move on. Tell him that from me.”
Sumner responded:
“You’re protecting him.”
Farage replied:
“It’s showing a bit of sorrow.”
He then added:
“Trouble is he’s a Rear Admiral, that’s the problem.”
After Farage left, Sumner said that if the decision had been his, Parry would have been removed months earlier.
Parry has disputed the interpretation of his comments and urged people to look at the original context, saying he was exercising his right to criticise people in public life he believed were acting against Britain’s interests.
White supremacist dating site treated as ‘not a resignation issue’
The undercover reporter was also inside headquarters as Reform dealt with the case of councillor Gavin Beales.
Beales had been found registered on WhiteDate, a website which ITV reported was exclusively for white people, promoted the “survival of the white race” and linked users to material associated with Nazi and fascist ideology.
Inside Reform’s press operation, officials compared it with religious or ethnic dating sites.
One concluded:
“It’s not a resignation issue, is it?”
Beales was not suspended over the matter.
He has previously said he was inadvertently linked to the site, would not have chosen to join it and “abhors racism”.
Candidate says he failed vetting twice, then Reform asked him to stand
ITV also tested Reform’s central claim that its vetting system had been professionalised.
Alex Lomas told an undercover reporter that he had failed the party’s candidate checks twice, including once because of posts supporting Tommy Robinson.
According to Lomas, four days after his second rejection he received an email saying he had passed.
He said he warned the party that there appeared to have been a mistake, only to receive a call asking him to stand anyway.
Lomas subsequently stood for Reform in an Oldham local election and narrowly finished second.
In another case, an undercover reporter pretending to be interested in becoming a Reform candidate told a local party official that he had previously posted material supporting Tommy Robinson.
The advice he received was:
“Can you delete them? Delete them ideally.”
ITV said the episode raised a different question from simply failing to find historic posts. Its reporter had actively disclosed a potentially disqualifying association and was allegedly encouraged to remove the evidence before applying.
Links to Portsmouth Patriots investigated
The programme also examines connections between Reform figures and Portsmouth Patriots, an anti-immigration protest group.
ITV filmed people at events associated with the group making racist chants and recorded one attendee discussing Nazi memorabilia and encouraging others to watch Hitler speeches.
George Madgwick, Reform’s leader on Hampshire County Council and a senior campaign manager, was found to have been a member of the Patriots’ private Facebook group.
Madgwick told the undercover reporter that organisers from Portsmouth Patriots had helped Reform distribute leaflets during the May elections.
Asked whether Reform activists could openly say they supported the group, he replied:
“Yeah, I do.”
Madgwick said he had never hidden his previous support, that he backed lawful protest and consistently condemned violence and extremism. He also said he had later been blocked from the group after criticising a post.
Reform says there is ‘no room for racism’
The investigation has already produced resignations, suspensions and internal inquiries.
By Friday, ITV reported that Alan Feeney, Raymond Dunning and Dean Miller had left Reform, while Jamie Campbell and Chris Whelan had also departed the party by mutual agreement. Adam Parkins and David Kerr remained Reform councillors.
Jason Powell was subsequently suspended following the release of the footage in which he called for concentration camps and said Muslims could not be British.
Reform has rejected suggestions that the documentary proves racism is endemic throughout the party.
In its formal response, it said:
“Not all individuals covertly recorded by ITV are members of Reform UK. Where members, activists and councillors have clearly behaved inappropriately, investigations have commenced. In some cases, there have been suspensions and due process must be followed.
“Reform UK has improved and prioritised its vetting procedures, but from time to time, a handful of individuals who do not share our values will initially make it through vetting. This is the same for all organisations.
“There is no room for racism in Reform UK.”
Farage has argued that no political party can vet people for remarks they may make in the future and accused opponents in the “establishment” of wanting Reform removed from the political picture.
Richard Tice also suggested one of the people featured by ITV was effectively a “Tory plant”, an apparent reference to Alan Feeney, who had previously been a Conservative before defecting to Reform.
The documentary ends where it began, with Farage’s promise.
After the 2024 election he said the “bad apples” would be “long gone” and promised rigorous vetting “at all levels”.
ITV’s undercover team then spent the following year filming inside the organisation he said he had professionalised.
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