Robert Jenrick denied Reform UK is chauvinistic after his fellow MP Sarah Pochin was caught by undercover filming complaining about the party’s culture.
She was filmed as part of an ITV News investigation which also found councillors and candidates within Reform UK had used racist language.
Mr Jenrick defended Reform’s vetting processes but said “all political parties have bad apples”.
Runcorn and Helsby MP Ms Pochin described the party as “so f***ing chauvinistic”, telling an undercover reporter: “I go out on all the shows, and go: ‘Oh no, it’s lovely, oh they’re all so welcoming.’ Shit… they just exclude you if you’re a woman… It’s really tough being a girl with all of this alpha male shit going on.”
Mr Jenrick, the party’s Treasury spokesman, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “That’s not my experience of Reform.”
He added: “I’ve spoken to Sarah many times. We are colleagues and friends and she knows that she can always rely on me.
“But it’s not my experience that the party has problems of that kind.”
Mr Jenrick said Reform had acted to “suspend or remove” councillors who were filmed by ITV making racist comments.
He added: “In all political parties there are bad individuals. The test, actually, of a leader and a party is: how do you deal with these things when they arise? And you have to take them on a case-by-case basis. You can’t just throw people under the bus unfairly.
“But the individuals that you’re referring to today were suspended or were asked to resign, and that has happened.”
Mr Jenrick said the party had more than 2,000 councillors and 280,000 members.
Sarah Pochin lambasted Reform UK ‘chauvinism’ in the footage (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
PA Wire
“In my experience, all political parties have bad apples,” the former Conservative cabinet minister said.
He said Reform has “very strong vetting” and invests a “huge amount” into it.
Reform UK has insisted there is “no room for racism” in its ranks, while the party’s leader Nigel Farage said the ITV investigation was carried out “because the establishment frankly want us out of the picture”.
ITV’s Undercover: A Year In Reform will be broadcast on Sunday at 10.20pm.