By Becky Morton, Political reporter
Reform UK has dropped three of its candidates following reviews they’d made offensive or racist comments, a spokesman has mentioned.
Edward Oakenfull, who’s standing in Derbyshire Dales; Robert Lomas, a candidate in Barnsley North, and Leslie Lilley, standing in Southend East and Rochford, will nonetheless seem on the poll paper as Reform candidates as it’s too late for them to be eliminated.
A Reform spokesman mentioned if any of the three had been elected they might sit as unbiased MPs.
However, he mentioned individuals ought to nonetheless vote for the candidates in the event that they wished to register assist for Reform.
It comes after chief Nigel Farage disowned the candidates throughout an look on BBC Question Time on Friday night, when their remarks had been put to him.
Mr Farage informed the programme: “I need nothing to do with them.”
Asked what Reform would say to voters within the constituencies the place the candidates had been dropped, the celebration spokesman mentioned he would “encourage them to vote for the party, by voting for these people on the ballot paper”.
This way, he said people could still vote for Reform’s “policy platform”.
He added: “I’m not saying the situation is ideal, but the size of the Reform vote share nationally is what matters.”
Warning: This story contains language that may offend
Mr Oakenfull posted derogatory comments about the IQ of sub-Saharan Africans on social media last year. He previously told the BBC the remarks had been taken out of context.
Mr Lomas reportedly said black people should “get off [their] lazy arses” and stop acting “like savages”. The comments were reported by the Times on 8 June, with Reform at the time claiming they were “out of context part quotations” and it needed more time to respond.
Mr Lilley reportedly described people arriving on small boats as “scum” in a social media post, adding: “I hope your family get robbed, beaten or attacked.”
Asked about the comments on a BBC Question Times Leaders’ Special, Mr Farage said: “You get people in all parties saying bad things and wrong things.”
However, he argued this was partly the consequence of having to find candidates quickly following the surprise announcement that there would be a general election in July.
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 Question Time 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”.
Reform UK said it had reported Channel 4 to the elections watchdog, the Electoral Commission, for alleged election interference.
The party said it would also be demanding an investigation by media regulator Ofcom.
On Friday, 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 had said they were “urgently assessing” comments in the programme “to establish if there are any criminal offences”.
In a later statement, Hertfordshire Police said they arrested a man in his 60s on Saturday “on suspicion of causing a public order offence. Following further review and liaison with Essex Police he is being released with no further action”.
A Reform spokesman confirmed that one other particular person filmed in Channel 4’s undercover report, George Jones, was a real celebration volunteer.
In the footage, Mr Jones, a longtime celebration activist who organises occasions for Mr Farage, calls a Pride flag on a police automobile a “degenerate flag”.
He repeatedly suggests members of the LGBT+ neighborhood are paedophiles and criticises police attending Pride.
The spokesperson mentioned “you may’t sack a volunteer” however that Mr Jones was “not concerned within the marketing campaign”, including: “He’s gone.”
Asked if Reform UK and Mr Farage would additionally say they wished nothing to do with Mr Jones within the mild of his remarks, the spokesperson mentioned there was a “distinction” between Mr Jones’ case and that of Mr Parker.
Both people had been not a part of the marketing campaign, he mentioned, however Mr Jones was beforehand identified to Reform UK and his remarks had been “rather more banterish”, whereas they’d no concept who Mr Parker was and his comments had been “far past the pale”.
Mr Farage has beforehand described Mr Jones’s comments as “vulgar, drunk and incorrect”.
Both Labour and the Conservatives criticised Mr Farage’s management of Reform UK on Saturday.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat informed Times Radio there was a “sample of racist and misogynistic views” inside Reform UK, and mentioned Mr Farage had “clearly achieved nearly no due diligence on who he is asking to hold his message”.
Sir Keir Starmer praised the prime minister’s public criticism of Mr Farage and mentioned “I share his disgust”.
The Labour chief mentioned Mr Farage had failed to handle the “tone, the tradition and the requirements” of his celebration.
