Monday 19 October 2026 5:25 am  |  Updated:  Friday 16 October 2026 6:20 pm

It’s too late for Farage to clean up Reform UK’s act

By: Eliot Wilson

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Facing allegations of racism, bigotry and sexism, can Nigel Farage clean up Reform UK’s act? It’s not even clear that he wants to, writes Eliot Wilson

The news that a year-long undercover investigation by ITV News has revealed racism, bigotry and sexism among a number of Reform UK’s candidates and office-holders was not a surprise. This problem has deep roots.

Former currency trader and hotelier Catherine Blaiklock established the Brexit Party, out of which Reform UK grew, with Nigel Farage’s support in January 2019. She lasted exactly two months as its leader before Farage took over, after she was revealed to have written and retweeted racist social media posts. Her own work included “Islam = submission – mostly to raping men it seems” and “I want my country back. I want seaside donkeys on the beach and little village churches, not acid attacks, mobs and mosques”. She also retweeted 45 posts by Mark Collett of the BNP including a caption of a photograph of a classroom of multiracial pupils which read “This is a British school. This is white genocide.”

During the last general election campaign, the party had to disassociate itself from three parliamentary candidates. One accused immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa of “diluting” the UK’s collective IQ and........

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