Reform U.K. has reported Channel 4 to the police and Electoral Commission for “electoral interference” over the secret filming of a racist activist who the party says was a plant. The Telegraph has more.
Andrew Parker, a part-time actor who lists “secret filming” among his skills, was shown in a Channel 4 News bulletin using a racial slur against Rishi Sunak.
Nigel Farage has said he wanted nothing to do with Reform candidates who have been exposed as racists – but claimed the incident involving Mr. Parker was staged, prompting Channel 4 to stand by its reporting.
Adam Richardson, the Reform Secretary and a barrister, said he had also made a formal complaint to Essex Police on behalf of Mr. Farage.
In his letter to the Electoral Commission, Mr. Richardson said it was “entirely evident that Mr. Parker was a plant within the Channel 4 News piece”.
“It is wholly unbelievable that by complete coincidence Channel 4 was performing an undercover investigation and by chance was paired up to go canvassing with a man who was pretending to be someone else, using a false voice and saying almost exclusively racist and bigoted remarks.
“The Channel 4 broadcast has clearly been made to harm Reform U.K. during an election period, and this cannot be described as anything short of election interference.
“It is entirely untrue that Mr. Parker had any connection with Mr. Farage as he details in the documentary, and has obviously attempted to use this fictional association to smear him in the national media and damage his campaign.”
Parker himself has now said that the truth will come out “in the papers”.
“It’ll all come out in the papers, what’ll come out is the truth,” he told the PA news agency.
According to the Telegraph, he declined to say whether he had been paid by Channel 4 to appear in the footage, but added that he was “glad” that Reform had reported the broadcaster to the Electoral Commission.
Does this mean he has sold his story to a newspaper? Let’s hope so.
Stop Press: Farage has said he is boycotting the BBC – declining an invitation to appear on Laura Kuenssberg – over last night’s Question Time, where the supposedly balanced audience asked only hostile questions and failed to applaud him once. He called it “the most extreme example” of bias he had seen in 25 years of appearing on BBC programmes.
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