Farage filmed telling aide he will 'protect' mayoral candidate after racist post, ITV footage shows

ITV Exposure has filmed exchanges showing Nigel Farage discussing a disciplinary outcome for Chris Parry, Reform UK’s mayoral candidate for Hampshire and the Solent, and those recordings include a separate social-media post in which Parry told the then-deputy prime minister to "go home to the Caribbean." The footage, which ITV plans to feature in a documentary, captures Farage telling his director of communications, Ed Sumner, that Parry "must apologise" and urging that he "do it and move on", while Sumner is shown saying to Farage, "you're protecting him." Reform UK issued a statement saying "there is no room for racism in Reform UK."

The material that has circulated in previews combines the filmed private exchange with on-camera material in which other party figures appear. Raymond Dunning, who said he had been asked by Reform to run as a parliamentary candidate, is heard on camera describing himself as "so far-right it's unbelievable" in footage published by one outlet. Opposition figures seized on the ITV material: Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called the report "chilling" and said he sympathised with those alarmed to see racism "festering in their community." Several national outlets ran accounts under similar headlines that Farage was accused of protecting a candidate after racist remarks. The sources differ in emphasis: reporting focused on the exchange between Farage and Sumner as evidence of internal disagreement about discipline, and on the Parry social-media post as the trigger for that private discussion. The public record supplied by the sources shows Farage publicly instructing an apology and privately pressing his communications director to manage the fallout, while the party's formal statement echoed the line that racism has no place in Reform UK. The available accounts do not include a public disciplinary outcome beyond Farage’s on-camera instruction and the party statement. What the recordings reveal is a moment of internal party management captured on film: a leader publicly calling for an apology while his aide says he is being "protected," and a candidate whose social-media language about a senior Labour politician prompted the exchange. The reporting to date does not present independent evidence about internal vetting procedures at Reform beyond suggesting questions about how Parry was selected and whether party officials shielded him after the social-media post. The ITV documentary format means the material will be broadcast to a national audience; the published excerpts have already prompted political reactions and headlines across national outlets. At this stage the sources show a contested episode inside Reform UK rather than a legal or adjudicated result: the recordings document what was said, not a formal finding of wrongdoing by an independent body. The account in national headlines — that Farage was "accused" of protecting a candidate over racist remarks — reflects how opposition politicians and commentators are interpreting the filmed exchanges. This episode adds to scrutiny of Reform UK’s candidate selection and discipline after a senior figure publicly instructed an apology while a close aide said the leader was shielding the candidate. The published reporting provides the recorded words and the party’s statement, but the sources do not supply a subsequent, documented disciplinary action or a full explanation of vetting steps that led to Parry’s selection. One sentence of context: party leaders' media handling and televised documentary revelations have in recent years been a frequent catalyst for intra-party disputes and public controversy. The reportage that produced these facts rests on filmed material prepared for broadcast and reactions from political opponents; each quoted phrase in circulation derives from those recordings and the party statement included in the source coverage. Readers should note the distinction between what the recordings show — private instructions, a deputy saying "you're protecting him," and a social-media post with a specific phrase — and any broader, adjudicated finding about the candidate or the leader. The sources supplied document words and reactions, not outcomes of a disciplinary process.