Reform MP Sarah Pochin was secretly recorded admitting the party has a problem with its attitude towards women. The MP for Runcorn and Helsby was speaking to someone she believed to be an incoming female press officer, but who was in fact an undercover reporter.
MP's comments caught on camera
In the footage, Pochin told the reporter at a Christmas gathering, 'thank f*** for that' when they said they would be starting in January. She added: 'We so need women press officers. They are so f****** chauvinistic.'
The MP, who won her seat by just six votes in a by-election, said she was forced to put on a charade that the party is 'welcoming' towards women. 'There's a bit of a male issue going on', she said.
Undercover investigation reveals party culture
The undercover reporter acting as a press officer was told she would have to be prepared to 'defend the indefensible'. The clips are part of a year-long ITV undercover investigation into the party led by Nigel Farage, with footage recorded during unprecedented access to Reform's HQ at Millbank Tower in Westminster.
Officials cited Reform mayoral candidate Chris Parry, who was investigated by the party after writing that then deputy prime minister David Lammy should 'go home to the Caribbean where loyalty lies'. Despite a recommendation from Reform's director of communications Ed Sumner that Parry should be dismissed, Mr Farage ruled the candidate for Hampshire and the Solent could stay provided he made an apology. Parry was later suspended after further controversial comments about Shomrim, the Jewish voluntary neighbourhood patrol service.
Footage also showed the party's press department deliberating how to deal with another councillor found to have links to a white supremacy dating site. Councillor Gavin Beales, from north Northamptonshire council, was not suspended, with the party insisting in January there was 'no case to answer'. Officials were heard dismissing that Beales' connection to the site, which promoted Nazi publications, as 'not great, but not a resignation issue'.
Another clip showed Alan Feeney, a councillor and deputy mayor of Solihull, labelling Asian homeowners 'parasites' and declaring that no more than one per cent of Britain 'can be non-white'. Feeney has announced he has left Reform for 'personal reasons'.
Party responds to allegations
Robert Jenrick, Reform's treasury spokesperson, said he 'didn't like' some of what he saw in the documentary, but insisted all parties have 'bad apples' and that the relevant councillors had been suspended. He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that Ms Pochin's recollection was not his 'experience' of the party, adding that she could 'rely' on him.
The former Conservative cabinet minister said: 'In all political parties there are bad individuals. The test, actually, of a leader and a party is: how do you deal with these things when they arise? And you have to take them on a case-by-case basis. You can't just throw people under the bus unfairly. But the individuals that you're referring to today were suspended or were asked to resign, and that has happened.'
A spokesperson for Reform insisted the party had improved its vetting processes and that there was no room for racism in the movement, but declined to comment on individual cases.
