Why Farage’s response to ITV’s investigation will shape Reform’s future

When I interviewed Nigel Farage at Reform UK’s conference in September, I told him his party looked a pretty fair shambles - given all the furore over questionable sources of funding and suspensions of officials and councillors. A charitable interpretation of the first part of ITV’s investigation into Reform UK is it remains a shambles, now that ITV has published video recordings of Reform councillors and candidates expressing views that are racist and sexist. The point is that Reform’s candidates are vetted to eliminate racists and sexists, and bar anyone holding extreme or toxic views. So the questions for Reform are how these men were approved by the vetting system, and whether what ITV found is evidence of widespread and systemic racism and sexism within the party. In my interview with Farage, he claimed that his party is the victim of an establishment onslaught, which he expected to continue. He even said, only half jokingly, that I am a member of that establishment. ITV has published recordings of Reform councillors and candidates expressing views that are racist and sexist Credit: ITV Exposure He is right that Reform’s rise since the general election terrified the leaders of the Conservative and Labour parties. But all of that is irrelevant to ITV and its journalism, which is simply about holding to account all and any party with ambitions to form a government. Reform has a choice. It can reinforce what its deputy leader Richard Tice said on Monday, which is that the revealed sexism and racism is not what he would have said but is increasingly typical of large numbers of British people. Subscribe for free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning. This would be to argue that British politics has fundamentally shifted away from the consensus of the last half century, such that it has become acceptable for members of a British government to be racist and sexist. This may be an upsetting proposition for many people, but it is not unrealistic given what has happened in the US under Donald Trump. Alternatively, Farage can concede that there is no establishment conspiracy here, and he simply needs to professionalise his vetting and get a proper grip of his party. From Westminster to Washington DC - our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below...