- An ITV documentary scheduled for October eighteenth shows Reform activist Jason Powell calling for concentration camps for arrivals crossing the Channel.
- Reform suspended Powell pending an investigation; councillor Alan Feeney resigned after footage showed him making racist and violent remarks.
- Reform says it has opened investigations and improved candidate screening, while accusing ITV of deceptive filming and pursuing legal action.
An ITV undercover film scheduled for Sunday shows Reform activist Jason Powell calling for Channel boat arrivals to be placed in “concentration camps.” Reform suspended Powell, who had applied to become a parliamentary candidate, pending an internal investigation.
The 90-minute documentary, Undercover: A Year in Reform, records Powell saying: “In the first week of election, build concentration camps, and everyone who comes across on the Channel, you're in there.”
Powell also described himself as “pretty hardline about Islam.” Referring to Reform home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf, who is Muslim, he said: “you cannot be a Muslim and British . it's like oil and water.”
The film is scheduled to air Sunday, October 18, 2026. Reform MP Sarah Pochin separately called the party “chauvinistic,” saying, “They just exclude you if you're a woman.”
Earlier recordings brought resignations and investigations
Footage broadcast Wednesday, October 14, showed councillors and candidates making racist, violent and sexist remarks. Alan Feeney, a Reform councillor and deputy mayor of Solihull, described the area as “infested” with Asian families and called them “absolute parasites.”
Feeney, a former Conservative who defected to Reform in 2025, said: “I'd be saying no more than 1% of British population can be non-white.” He also called for Muslims to be removed from their homes and sent to Pakistan.
“You'd need a proper nuclear option, like literally drag them [out of] their homes, stick them on planes and f*** them off to Pakistan”
Feeney resigned from his Reform roles on Solihull borough council and Birmingham city council on Friday. He said he would continue as an independent councillor and wrote: “There is no excuse for my comments. With responsibility comes accountability, and it is for that reason that I have resigned every post I hold on both Solihull borough council and Birmingham city council.”
He added: “My remarks were wrong, offensive and completely unacceptable.” Feeney said his resignation from Reform had been mutually agreed and cited personal reasons.
Chris Whelan, another Reform candidate in Solihull, made a sexual remark about a female candidate: “If she was my daughter, it would still be bath night on a Thursday. I'll wash you properly this time.” He resigned as a councillor for personal and health reasons.
Jamie Campbell, a third Reform candidate in the Solihull footage, discussed a rumoured local mosque. He said: “There's got to be a way of stopping them – like, go and buy some pork chops; we'll bury it in the ground.”
Other excerpts referred to Black children as “animals.” One councillor called for King Charles to be beheaded, claiming the monarch “is a Muslim.”
Two councillors from the London borough of Hounslow, David Kerr and Adam Parkins, were also under investigation. Kerr advocated machine-gunning thousands of grooming gang members. Parkins said that, as prime minister, he would hold Sunday morning executions in the Downing Street rose garden.
Vetting claims now collide with the party’s defence
Nigel Farage defended Reform’s vetting earlier in the week, saying the party screened candidates “to a much higher standard than other parties.” He added: “you can't vet for future comments.”
Farage said he could not predict what someone might say after a drink or when provoked. He argued that similar remarks could be elicited from hundreds of Conservative councillors, and called the most egregious case in the film a long-term Conservative councillor, an apparent reference to Feeney. Anyone making such comments, he said, was “not welcome.”
In September 2024, Farage pledged: “we don't want extremists, we don't want bigots, we don't want people who think that way, because we represent the silent, decent majority of this great country that we live in.”
Reform said it had improved and prioritised vetting, but that people who did not share its values could still initially pass. The party said there was “no room for racism,” that it had opened investigations and that “due process must be followed.” It said it would not comment on individual cases while investigations continued.
The film also recorded Chester branch chairman Ian Frost advising an undercover reporter to remove social media posts supporting Tommy Robinson before seeking a candidacy. Frost said: “Anything where you've got, things, Tommy Robinson or anything like that, okay, I would delete the account and I'd start again.”
Frost told ITV he believed the reporter was genuine, said one conversation was not a fair basis for judgment and said he had since left Reform for unrelated reasons. In another vetting account, former candidate Alex Lomas said he had failed screening twice, including over shared Robinson posts, before receiving an email saying he had passed.
“On my second application, I got declined on the Friday, I got an email from them on the Tuesday saying you've passed vetting”
Reform denied Lomas had failed vetting. The footage also showed the party training councillor Karl Lewis to answer media inquiries about his past support for Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate.
Reform MP Robert Jenrick said all parties had “bad apples.” He said he disliked what he heard in the documentary and that Reform acted quickly, but rejected the claim that such conduct happened more often in Reform.
The filming spanned election campaigns in England and Wales
ITV reporters filmed Reform candidates and councillors across England and Wales ahead of the May elections and four by-election campaigns in 2025 and 2026. The documentary includes eight figures in the party.
Reform said everyone filmed was under investigation and had either resigned or been suspended. It accused ITV of “extreme methods of deception,” including using false information to obtain an undercover role at the party’s headquarters.
The party told the BBC it was pursuing legal action against ITV and the documentary’s production company. It also said the film came as Farage and others faced threats from people wishing them harm, creating a security issue.
Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said Farage was “completely unfit to lead.” She accused him of failing to take responsibility and said the allegations reached the party’s leadership.
“Bad apples don't fall far from the tree. The sleaze, scandals and appalling revelations of racism and rank misogyny piling up by the day go right to the top of Reform UK. Nigel Farage is incapable of taking responsibility and getting his house in order because he himself shares culpability”
Labour called the investigation “truly sickening” and said Farage could not dismiss the revelations as “a few bad apples.” The Conservatives said: “Nigel Farage promised to make Reform ready for government. These sorry individuals are proof he has failed.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “This is chilling. I feel for anyone watching this tonight who is frightened to see such racism and hatred festering in their community.” A Green Party spokesman said the comments reflected party policy and accused Reform of focusing on vilifying migrants and Muslims.
The party’s legal action against ITV and the production company is now part of its response to the documentary, alongside the internal investigations into members, activists and councillors.
