Is Nigel Farage branding working class racist? Why his 'pub banter' excuse is beyond the pale

Nigel Farage has been slammed for his response to a series of racist remarks by Reform politicians and accused of potentially describing working class people as racist. Shocking comments by Reform politicians were caught on camera in an investigation by ITV News , including a councillor describing Asian homeowners as "parasites" and another claiming King Charles should be beheaded for secretly being Muslim. Mr Farage responded to the series of racist and sexist remarks in a statement that appeared to suggest the language was "pub" banter. The Reform leaders response that "not everyone's been to Oxford University or Eton" has been slammed as the Mirror's Nicola Thorp and PoliticsJOE's Ava Santina discuss whether Farage has branded the working class as racist. To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed. In a statement following the documentary, Farage suggested the remarks caught on camera were "everywhere", saying: "You’ll find worse. You’ll find it everywhere. You’ll find it in the pub tonight." Farage added: "Not everyone's been to Oxford University. Not everyone's been to Eton. Not everyone expresses themselves in very carefully formulated language." On an episode of the Mirror's new Sense Check YouTube series , host Nicola and Ava, politics editor at PoliticsJOE, called the response "outrageous". Nicola said: "It's just outrageous to suggest that anybody not using racial slurs must have been privately educated and is part of the media really. It just beggars belief." Ava argued that pub banter "didn't have to be racist", adding: "I think going back to the sort of the brash tone, what Nigel Farage is attempting to do is he's sort of trying to engage in this idea that you can't say anything anymore. "And I mean, I come from a working class background, right? And if I go out with my family and they are very brash, they are very rude, you know, you can't really sit in a pub for more than five minutes without having some kind of loving insult hurled at you, right? It's not racist, though. That is the distinction. "You can be rude and you can be brash. Have a laugh. It doesn't necessarily have to be racist." Reform UK, in a statement to the Mirror, said it 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". Nicola added it didn't seem "like a party can respond in both of those ways", saying: "So on one hand they say, 'we're very sorry, these are not views that are reflected by the party leadership'. And also, 'it's banter. You hear it down the pub. It's working class'. And that has p***ed me off, no end. To suggest that racism, misogyny, homophobia are inherently working class attributes is appalling." Ava suggested the undercover documentary has now put the party in a "tricky position" as Farage is "no longer being able to avoid speaking to ordinary people". She suggested Farage previously was able to "speak in a different way" to different audiences but said: "What this documentary has done is actually it's broken the façade, it's broken his cover, so he's been revealed. Speaking in a way that he wouldn't usually like to be portrayed to a certain sub-sect of people." Nicola and Ava spoke on Sense Check, the Mirror's new hard-hitting flagship YouTube show. The two also analyse Reform UK's strategy to launch its own £10 million media empire, comparing it to Donald Trump's tactics and give their critique of GB News Radio's proposed "British music only" policy. The episode with Nicola Thorp and PoliticsJOE's Ava Santina will be out on YouTube at 5pm on October 23. The first episode of the series featured Angela Rayner who opened up those infamous vaping photos and described the traumatic premature birth of her son. New episodes of the Mirror's show Sense Check are available on YouTube. Subscribe to the Pod Save The King YouTube channel to make sure you don’t miss an episode www.youtube.com/@MirrorSenseCheck .