Reform supporter: Use boat migrants as target practice
A MAN canvassing for Nigel Farage in the seat where the Reform UK leader is standing has said migrants crossing the Channel should be shot.
In footage recorded by an undercoverTV reporter, Andrew Parker was also captured in Essex seaside town Clacton using a racial slur against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The Channel 4 News investigation caught another Reform supporter describing the LGBT Pride flag as a “degenerate” ensign.
Mr Farage, who aims to finally become an MP at his eighth attempt, said he was “dismayed” by the film and added the individuals would
Cult
no longer campaign with him.
Talking about migrants coming ashore at Deal, Kent, Parker was filmed saying: “Army recruitment – get the young recruits there, with guns, on the f ****** beach, target practice. F ****** just shoot them.”
He also racially insulted Mr Sunak and called Islam a “disgusting cult”.
In a statement to Channel 4 News, he said: “I would like to make it clear that neither Nigel Farage personally or the Reform Party are aware of my personal views on immigration. Any comments made by me during those recordings are my own personal views on any subject I commented on.
“I would therefore like to apologise profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute as this was not my intention.”
Mr Farage said: “The appalling sentiments expressed by some in these exchanges bear no relation to my own views, those of the vast majority of our supporters or Reform UK policy. Some of the language used was reprehensible.”
But he said of the undercover reporting: “I would be interested to know whether Channel 4 is subjecting the grassroots volunteers of all the political parties to similar subterfuges, or whether Reform UK has been singled out for special attention.” Speaking in Boston, Lincolnshire, Mr Farage admitted his party was not “perfect”.
He said: “We’ve had one or two candidates that have said things they shouldn’t have said. In most cases they’re just speaking like ordinary folk.
“They’re not part of the mainstream political Oxbridge speak, we understand that.”
He also visited County Durham yesterday in an attempt to shore up support, as voter polls showed it is ebbing away.
His campaign faltered after he claimed Putin was provoked into invading Ukraine by Nato expansion.