NIGEL Farage has claimed that he has done more “than anybody else alive” to combat the far-right in the UK.
During an appearance on a second BBC Question Time special – which was announced by the BBC specifically to accommodate Farage – the Reform UK leader was asked about racist and homophobic comments made by a campaigner for his party in Clacton, the seat Farage is contesting in the General Election.
An undercover reporter for Channel 4 recorded Reform canvasser Andrew Parker stating that migrants coming to the UK on small boats should be used as “target practice”.
Parker also labelled Islam a “disgusting cult”, used a racial slur against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and suggested LGBT+ people were paedophiles.
In a statement following the publication of the footage by Channel 4, Farage said he was “dismayed by the reported comments of a handful of people associated with my local campaign” and described some of the language used as “reprehensible”.
However, when questioned about whether his party was emboldening far-right politics in the UK, Farage claimed he was, in fact, a campaigner against racism and the far-right.
He said: “I’ve done more to drive the far right out of British politics than anybody else alive.
“I took on the BNP just over a decade ago. I said to their voters, if this is a protest vote but you don’t support their racist agenda, don’t vote for them, vote for me, destroyed them.”
He added: “What happened over the last weekend was truly astonishing, a tirade of infective abuse directed at the prime minister. The whole thing was unbelievable, it didn’t ring true.”
Farage then repeated claims that Parker is an actor, he describing the Channel 4 report as “a political setup of astonishing proportions”.
He said: “We then found out, yes, actually, he is an actor. He’s worked in the past for Channel 4. On his own site he says, ‘I’m a well-spoken actor with an alter-ego, I do rough talking’.
“Let me tell you, from the minute he turned up in that office in Clacton and I saw him, he was acting from the very start. He even says on his website, ‘hire me, I do undercover filming’.
He added: “This is a total and utter setup that has been leapt on, of course, by our political opponents, leapt on by most of the mainstream media.”
Asked who he believed paid the man to pretend to be a Reform canvasser, Farage said:
“It may well have been the production company, or it’s the guy himself who wanted publicity to get more parts, I don’t know. What I know is this is a political setup of astonishing proportions.”
Channel 4 have insisted there is no evidence for the claims made by Farage and that the footage “speaks for itself”.
“We strongly stand by our rigorous and duly impartial journalism which speaks for itself,” a spokesperson for the channel said.
“We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser.
“We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report.
“Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation.”
