Reform canvasser opens ‘can of worms’ for Farage | Alicia Fitzgerald

that there have been a number of allegations and discoveries by Al about candidates standing for UK

reform

in this election and this is definitely not the first. This is almost like breaking the camel's straw. If you like, there's been a series of pretty serious revelations that have come out about the candidates and every time Nigel Farage is asked about it, he doesn't seem to take it very seriously, he's not willing to get rid of all the candidates that have been accused of doing something wrong because right now their numbers would be declining if they did that because there have been many who ended up on the front page of a newspaper for saying something that is deeply inappropriate and we noticed it last week or so the leadership in the

reform

polls seems to have choked or is falling a little bit and there were a lot of questions about whether or not that had to do with Nigel Farage's comments about Ukraine and the West is intervening and the West is provoking war in Ukraine is what he said or whether it was a broader question about other reform candidates like the revelations we are having today, so it will be interesting to see what Nigel Farage himself says about this, I mean the caner they spoke to in this The inquiry said in a statement saying that neither Nigel Farage nor the Reform Party were aware of his personal views on immigrants and things like that, but obviously we have to wait for a direct response from Reform and Nigel Farage on that, yes, so there is um.

There is a statement here that doesn't exist from Nigel Farage to Channel 4 News. I am dismayed by reported comments that a handful of people associated with my local campaign, particularly those who are volunteers, will no longer be with the campaign. Terrible feelings. calls them reforming the UK as a party for all who believe in Britain and goes on, um, to that point, it's a Channel 4 undercover investigation, and we've just heard a couple of clips there where he describes Prime Minister Rishi Sunak using a racist. word um he also calls Islam uh this particular talk Mr. Parker um uh he calls it Andrew Parker, the reformist UK pollster uh describes Islam as a sect and then suggests that you should get army recruits from a deal that's a place uh near DOA in Kent get young recruits there with guns on the beach, target practice, just shoot them, this is what the Greeks did, you know all about the Greeks shooting a charge, a ring fence, Bradford St and , an apology for this language, but it is, simply.

It goes on like this, it's clip after clip after clip absolutely and while in that statement Nigel says that this particular canvas won't work for UK reform, he will definitely open a can of

worms

about what Farage's plans are. with the other candidates and because, like I said, this is not the first of these types of accusations, sure this one is probably much stronger and our language is stronger, but this is definitely not the first candidate or someone who is involved in Reform UK's Canvases Sing, which has been found to say things that most of the public would find deeply offensive, so I think the statement Nigel Farage has made about this particular canvas will probably see him put under even more pressure on what What are we going to do with other candidates who until now have gone unnoticed, yes, we had Benhabib, the deputy co-leader on the show, yesterday and he blamed journalism, he basically said that many of the candidates were being misquoted, it was wrong journalism, this, this. it was after Facebook message posts that we had evidence of and of course you can't say that when you're presented with video clips like this but let's talk about the revelations about the reform firstly Adam it's an undercover investigation from Channel 4, the channel.

He has revealed some of the tactics and shocking language used by members of the UK reform campaign. Filming took place in Clacton, which is, of course, where Nigel Farage is a candidate. Here is just part of the audio which begins with a canvas explaining how the UK should deal. with the asylum seekers they got the recruits from the And there, yes, with guns on the beach, target practice, just show them that racist language was used repeatedly here directed at the Prime Minister, rishy sunak, we have it as good as him and the homophobia of Farage's Inner Circle, see that it generates a flag on the Bonnet front what old Bill was doing promoting the event and here is another clip where a reformed pollster gives his point of view on Islam all they were interested in doing is take charge of changing being a Muslim, you see what the Muslim what the Islamics want is horrendous, sick, sick C If you don't know about Isam is the most disgusting Cel, just a quick reminder of the full list of candidates in Clanton, you can go to Who can I vote for?

You just heard some of the language um in that undercover. investigation for Channel 4 how bad this is for UK reform Adam, well we should say that niga farz have very quickly dissociated themselves from it by saying that it is unacceptable that the people in the undercover video have no further role in the campaign, but he also said to Channel 4, why aren't you reporting on the anti-white comments made by the Labor candidate who is black, so he's still addressing that whole area of ​​racism? How harmful is it on some level? It's not surprising that some of the people who are on reform have these views, and you know, congratulations and Well Done Channel 4 for going undercover and finding them, it's not the same as saying that everyone who is going to vote for reform in the UK they have their views because I'm sure they don't.

So I would have thought that overall this would deter some people from electoral reform. The immediate question, of course, is what impact it will have in Claton, where Nigel Farro is the reformed candidate making the decision to run there, which was previously in the hands of, of course, a United Kingdom. MP in the past, I was just looking at MRP on the Yugov site and now they say they expect Nyro Farage to win, they think he has about 45% of the vote, that puts Labor and then the Conservatives and then work at a considerable distance and effectively what it means is that all the other candidates or all the other votes would have to unite around one person to stop Nigel Farage in a big tactical vote, yeah, so it doesn't look like this is going to shave enough. remove Nigel Farage's personal supporters to stop his damaging advance, but perhaps not so damaging as to leave Nigel Farage out of the picture as the man the polls say is the favorite to take the Claton U constituency, like you mentioned.

Nigel says he is shocked. in response to reprehensible comments by UK reform activists in Essex, here is the reform leader, speaking to a Channel 4 journalist, could he apologize to the Prime Minister for the appallingly racist way one of his activists spoke about Rishi Sunak ? horrible do you apologize for the Prime Minister? It's horrible, that's not an apology, can't you go? how much further can I go, of course this is an apology, it was horrible, I don't know who this guy is, something I met. once years ago I meant horrible, horrible, horrible, almost as bad as almost as bad as the Labor candidate in Clone and his insults to white people. and his campaign, but if you are dismayed by this as you say, why are you trying to deflect?

Why are you trying to deflect? If you're like Paul, cover racism because I'd like to ask you about the members of Your Inner Circle as well. because homophobic, racist, xenophobic comments have also been made by people who have seen their roles in their campaign in CL. I would drink white men's tears. I'm defending black and Asian people, not PR. That's Nigel, for now, speaking to Channel 4 there as a result of that undercover investigation, let's bring in Andy Bell early. We're here to talk about his book, but I'm interested to know what you think of this as a veteran of many election campaigns.

Andy Bell, political editor of Channel 5. a warm welcome, yes, thank you very much for having me. Will this touch on the sides of reform or might some people feel that it is actually good for them that more people than we would like to think might agree with some? from these comments uh, I guess it's always possible, it's hard to put a figure on that kind of thing. I guess we were listening to Adam talk about the possibility of Nigel Frange winning at Clacton. I guess the big picture too. Obviously, what about other constituencies where reformist Britain has been gaining ground and where the Tories look like the main people they will hurt?

When thinking about voting reform in the UK, there was already some suggestion in some polls that Nigel fr's comments about Ukraine and essentially blaming NATO for expanding eastwards, that those comments may have been doing some damage to the UK's reformist position, it would be interesting to see if the reports This does any harm there too and if it does, obviously the people who will be happiest about this will be the Conservatives, which could mean the difference between them and keeping some seats that otherwise, if reform were emerging, could have done so. I lost 18 seats is the amount predicted by an MRP poll which I saw was quite sympathetic to Nigel.

Yes, I think it was the same poll that also said the Lib Dems would be the right opposition party if they had one. I haven't confused both, uh, my two MRP polls, I mean, Adam, we had benhabib as the deputy co-leader of Reform last night and that was worrying, a candidate who made some pretty horrible comments, talked about, you know, massacring to asylum seekers effectively, um. and benhabib said i don't know anything about this. I have spoken to the party headquarters. These comments have been uh misinformed. He himself at one point suggested that some sailors might drown.

Well, yes, the main helm of it was and us. Basically, he went through several reformist candidates that we're talking about now, but this is all about the same issue. We gave him several examples of reform candidates who had said some pretty horrible things, or had been associated with some pretty horrible people, or had said some damning things, and none of those people had been suspended, and we asked him what it would take for reform to suspend a candidate. or if they were too happy to just leave this there. Well, there is one candidate who has made an extensive video exposing the so-called great replacement.

The theory coming out of the United States is the theory that black and brown people are trying to drive out white people in countries like this and as far as I know they have not been disciplined and I think we have had two candidates suspended for their links to the BNP or a favorable outlook on the BNP, but it was interesting that on that tape we just got from Channel 4 there was someone talking about the great replacement theory, so clearly this is current in some circles, I'd say no. I know yes and I agree, but I would say that an important point of this is that it makes it much more difficult for Nigel Farage to try to get into the conservative party and yes, I mean, yes.

You're right, I mean, I'm just digesting this tonight. There are clearly a number of people within the Conservative party who would like to see Nigel Farage join them and think the road back from what at the moment looks like a difficult defeat. Of course, we don't know if we're not there yet, but if the opinion polls are correct, the way back is to unite the right, and the place those voters who need to bring back have gone is reform and Nigel Farage , but, as you say, if this kind of thing comes up, it becomes quite difficult for conservatives, I imagine they would say yes, come on, come back and join.