You might expect me, as a British Asian woman, to be absolutely horrified by the latest revelations about the racism in Reform UK’s ranks. I am, but depressingly I have heard it all before.
The latest investigation comes courtesy of ITV Exposure, whose undercover film gathered footage over the course of a year. It found multiple elected councillors and party candidates expressing abhorrent views. One councillor in Solihull, Alan Feeney, described Asian families in the area as an “infestation”, called them “parasites” and fantasised about a “proper nuclear option”: dragging people from their homes and sending them off to Pakistan. Charming. Feeney has now stepped down from his role.
Another candidate representing Reform, Jamie Campbell, even discussed burying pork beneath a proposed mosque. A quick FYI, gentlemen: burying a few sausages in the ground isn’t some magical Muslim-repellent force field.
These comments are vile. But I wonder how many Black and brown people have become so desensitised to this kind of rhetoric that we’ve developed a sort of emotional callus. It says a lot about what Britain has become. So, it wasn’t the racism that shocked me most about these revelations, but the way a fellow female Reform candidate was discussed.
Chris Whelan, who was elected as a Reform councillor just five months ago (he has now resigned), said this about a female Reform candidate: “F**k me, if it was my daughter, it’d still be bath night on a Thursday.” Sorry, WHAT? Why is a grown man talking about bath night in relation to an adult woman? It is genuinely skin-crawling and while Reform HQ has dismissed these men as a few “bad apples”, the culture at the heart of the party was laid bare in ITV’s investigation into one of its own MPs.
Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP for Runcorn and Helsby since May 2025, was filmed as part of the undercover investigation. She described the party as “so f**king 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.”
Robert Jenrick came out batting for Reform this morning, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today: “That’s not my experience of Reform.” God, I wonder why Robert? 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.” Jenrick said Reform had acted to suspend or remove councillors who were filmed by ITV making racist comments.
Here’s what really worries me about investigations like this: I suspect there are people watching that footage of the councillors and candidates who won’t be horrified at all. They’ll be delighted. Somewhere, someone who’s spent the last decade complaining about immigration in Facebook comments and Reddit forums is watching an elected politician describe Asian families as “parasites” and thinking: “Finally, someone who says what we’re all thinking.“ In a position of elective power, no less. And that is the problem. We assume that exposing politicians saying racist things will damage them. That if the public could only hear what these people say when they think nobody’s listening, they’d surely reject them. But what if that’s no longer true?
Donald Trump is perhaps the most obvious example. A man whose political career has survived an extraordinary succession of scandals, offensive remarks and revelations that, once upon a time, might have ended a politician’s career. Yet, he went on to win the presidency twice. Whatever else you think of him, he has demonstrated that public outrage and political consequences don’t necessarily go hand in hand. In fact, quite the opposite.
What if, for some voters, these aren’t revelations of unacceptable prejudice but confirmation that they’ve finally found their political home? Forget knocking on doors. Feeney might find that the people who agree with him are signing themselves up. This isn’t some anonymous bloke mouthing off in the pub. This is the anonymous bloke in the pub who’s now in a suit, entrusted with public office.
We need journalists to keep exposing what people seeking power say when they think nobody is listening – but let’s not kid ourselves that everyone watching will react the same way. I want to believe this investigation will disgust people. But it will delight others. The most frightening thing about British politics in 2026 is that we’ve reached a point where exposing racism might not cost a politician votes. It might win them some.