Burnham urges Reform UK to act on racism after ITV undercover investigation

Mixed · 2Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Reform UK must take "immediate and firm action" against party members who used racist language in an ITV News undercover investigation. 1 2 Centre · 1Speaking to reporters during a visit to the North West, Burnham said: "We've allowed a poison into our politics in recent years, and it's time to draw a line under it." He said he was "pleased ITV has done this". 1 Centre · 1Burnham also said he had praised Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch in the House of Commons the previous afternoon for drawing a line at her party conference between her party and "that type of politics". 1

Centre · 1The footage, which emerged on Wednesday, included a Reform member saying his area had become "infested" with Asian families and black children being called "animals". 1 Left · 1According to the Daily Mirror, Solihull deputy mayor and Reform councillor Alan Feeney called Asian homeowners "parasites" and suggested people should be dragged "out of their homes". It reports that Dean Miller, a Reform councillor in Bromley, said the King should be beheaded after claiming he was secretly Muslim, and described Black children as "f***** animals". 2 Left · 1The Mirror says further clips, recorded during a year-long investigation, showed a Solihull councillor making sexual remarks about a female Reform colleague, and a would-be parliamentary candidate, Raymond Dunning, saying "I'm so far-right it's unbelievable". The material is due to feature in a 90-minute documentary, Undercover: A Year In Reform, on ITV1 on Sunday 18 October at 10.20pm. 2

Left · 1Feeney said he left Reform for personal reasons this week. Miller said he had resigned the party whip and blamed a failure of duty of care by party leadership, saying the remarks were made while he was heavily medicated and in distress. The other Solihull councillor announced his resignation on Monday. 2 Mixed · 2Reform UK said investigations had begun and some members had been suspended, that it had improved its vetting, and that "one cannot vet a future comment" especially where someone is "entrapped in a discussion with an undercover reporter". It added: "There is no room for racism in Reform UK." Party sources told the Standard that those involved had been suspended or had left. 2 1 Centre · 1Nigel Farage, speaking in Chelmsford, said the investigation was carried out "because the establishment frankly want us out of the picture". He noted that one person filmed had previously been a Conservative councillor, said Reform vets "much more heavily than the other parties", and argued that you "can't vet against what somebody might say in the future". 1

Left · 1Other parties also condemned the footage. Labour chair Bridget Phillipson said Farage "can't shrug these latest revelations off as being a few bad apples" and that offenders must be thrown out immediately, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called the report "chilling". 2 Centre · 1The Standard adds that Reform faced calls from across the political spectrum on Wednesday to remove members who made racist remarks, and that Farage dismissed a poll earlier in the week showing Reform third behind Labour and the Conservatives. 1