Undercover ITV investigation exposes racist and extremist remarks by Reform UK councillors

Summary

• An undercover investigation by ITV News has triggered a political controversy in the United Kingdom after secretly recorded footage showed several Reform UK councillors and election candidates making racist, Islamophobic, sexist and violent remarks.
• Reform UK said investigations had begun into the findings and that some individuals had been suspended, stressing that people who do not share the party’s values could sometimes pass its vetting procedures.
• It raises a fundamental question about whether Reform UK can demonstrate that its candidate vetting system is effective, particularly as the party seeks to expand its electoral support and establish itself as a credible alternative to the established political parties.

AI Generated Summary

An undercover investigation by ITV News has triggered a political controversy in the United Kingdom after secretly recorded footage showed several Reform UK councillors and election candidates making racist, Islamophobic, sexist and violent remarks.

The investigation, conducted over a year by ITV Exposure, followed party campaigners across England and Wales during local elections and parliamentary by-election campaigns in 2025 and 2026. The recordings captured individuals expressing hostility towards Asian communities, Muslims and Black people, alongside comments about women and proposals for extreme action against migrants. 

Among those filmed was Alan Feeney, a Reform councillor in Solihull, who made derogatory comments about Asian residents and suggested forcibly deporting people to Pakistan. Another councillor, Dean Miller of Bromley, made racist remarks about Black children and called for King Charles III to be beheaded, based on a false claim that the monarch was Muslim. Miller later said he had been heavily medicated for a chronic pain condition and resigned from Reform UK.