Nigel Farage: racism row canvasser is an ‘actor’
It’s been a tricky few days for Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage after one of his party’s canvassers was caught using a racial slur against the Prime Minister. Rishi Sunak hit back at the Reform man’s words, saying it ‘hurts and it makes me angry’. Yet today, Farage insisted that he was not linked to controversial members, saying to Sky’s Trevor Phillips that in this case he ‘knows it is’ a set up, calling the member in question an ‘actor’. He went on:
If you want to support us, why not come as the person you really are. Why come using your false acting voice?
I fought harder than anyone to drive the BNP out as an electoral force… When I ran UKIP, when I set the Brexit party up, I didn’t allow anyone to even be a member if they were party of any of those groups.
Farage would remove anti-discrimination laws
Reform leader Nigel Farage left Sky’s Trevor Phillips stunned this morning after saying that he would remove anti-discimination legislation if he were in power. Farage first said that he wanted to ‘build a mass movement for real change’ before insisting he was running a ‘positive project’ with Reform. The party leader went on to say it was ‘utterly untrue’ he was comfortable ‘fanning the flames of prejudice to advance’ it. After the Reform politician said he wants to ‘live in a country that is literally colourblind’, Phillips quizzed Farage:
Are you still in the place where you said to me several years ago that you would get rid of anti-discrimination legislation as divisive?
‘Very. Terrible. Awful,’ Farage replied.
Prime Minister insists UK is a better place to live now than in 2010
Over on the BBC, the Prime Minister was taking questions from Laura Kuenssberg on his party’s record in government as the election date fast approaches. Kuenssberg spoke of how voters feel their ‘livelihoods have become less secure’, before pointing to how people are increasingly concerned about the state of public services and national security. But while the PM said he understood concerns and that the last few years had been ‘difficult for everyone’, Sunak was adamant that Britain is a ‘better place to live than it was in 2010’.
Sunak defends taking Hester donations
After Phillips quizzed Farage on Sky over racist remarks made by a Reform canvasser, the Prime Minister spoke to the BBC about the incident. But viewers weren’t convinced Sunak has cracked down enough on offensive slurs – with one writing in:
I was appalled at the way Sunak was described, however to me his stance on racism hasn’t been completely zero tolerance. Why did he refuse to return the money of a Conservative party donor, Frank Hester, who was accused of making racist remarks about Diane Abbott?
Sunak insisted he called out the comments as racist at the time, before adding that Hester apologised and expressed contrition. The PM slammed Farage for only condemning his canvasser’s words as ‘inappropriate’, saying: ‘They were vile and racist and wrong… The person who made them has only apologised to the Reform party for the impact it’s had on them. It’s a very clear difference there.’
Labour’s Pat McFadden would welcome an endorsement from the Sun
As Steerpike has detailed here, the Labour party has already had nine newspaper endorsements, including from the Guardian, the Economist and the Sunday Times. And on LBC this morning, Labour candidate Pat McFadden told Lewis Goodall that he would like to see the Sun added to that list. ‘Do you think it would be a problem for Labour in this election if the Sun newspaper doesn’t do the same?’ Goodall questioned McFadden. ‘We always welcome endorsements,’ the Labour man replied, adding that his party has changed and ‘broadened our appeal’. ‘I would like the Sun to endorse us,’ he concluded.
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