ITV clearly hoped their latest documentary would be a shocking exposé of Reform. Their year-long investigation involved an undercover reporter infiltrating Reform HQ by securing employment there. Now that their full documentary has aired – after a week of drip-feeding extracts – we can safely say it is a damp squib.

We cannot allow a sting operation exposing a few bad apples to be used to shut down legitimate debate about the issues Reform is raising

We cannot allow a sting operation exposing a few bad apples to be used to shut down legitimate debate about the issues Reform is raising

To be clear, it does show a few Reform councillors and activists making some appalling comments – racist, misogynistic, you name it. But absolutely any political party, organisation or business subjected to a year-long fly-on-the-wall sting, with every possible conversation recorded and attempts to coax as much incriminating language out of people as possible, would reveal some disgusting language and viewpoints. Which is why nor should we hold it against the Tories that perhaps the most egregious of those caught in the sting was a Conservative councillor who has posed for photos with Kemi Badenoch until he defected to Reform last year. The point is, it is absurd to define an entire party by the behaviour of a handful – and yes the documentary shows just a handful, from a Reform........

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