How the right wing press downplayed Reform racism investigation

The evidence was damning. But not if you get your news from the pages of the Mail, Telegraph, Express or Sun!

The Mail did report the initial allegations emerging from the documentary – but quickly pivoted to Reform’s attempts to downplay them and then turn the attack on the undercover investigators who had unearthed the comments.

While an initial article reported – accurately – that Reform had been “hit by fresh questions over candidate vetting after politicians demanded King’s execution and made sickening racist and sexist jokes”, its outrage did not last long before the paper got in line with Reform’s take on events.

It gave space to Robert Jenrick’s defence that they were no worse than anyone else, under the headline “Jenrick likens shocking racism and sexism in Reform to BBC paedo scandals claiming all parties have ‘bad apples’ after TV probe”. It quoted him as asking a BBC radio presenter: “Can you now give a guarantee to your listeners this morning that no BBC presenter in the future will be exposed as a paedophile, as a number have been in the recent past?”

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It then changed the headline on its initial story about the claims to turn them on ITV. Visitors to the site will now see: “Farage claims Reform politicians demanded King’s execution and made sickening racist and sexist jokes after being ‘provoked’ by undercover reporters working for ‘establishment’”.

It quoted Farage as saying councillors in all parties held such views, but “it’s just that you never will see an expensive investigation like that into the other parties because the establishment frankly want us out of the picture”. It also quoted deputy leader Richard Tice as claiming, without any apparent evidence, that one of the Reform figures caught up in the investigation was a “Tory plant” who was “deliberately saying some things to make us look bad”.

The Telegraph, likewise, ran some small pieces on the ITV investigation – including “Zia Yusuf is not British, Reform activist suggests in undercover footage” and “Aspiring Reform MP who said ‘you cannot be Muslim and British’ suspended” – but quickly moved to the line that the party was being “unfairly targeted”.

Like the Mail, they were happy to run the headline “Every party has bad apples, says Jenrick after Reform exposé”, before devoting more space to the big news that Camilla Tominey and Tim Stanley had recorded a Telegraph podcast on the row, in particular whether Reform was “being unfairly targeted”. “Is the ‘establishment’ out to destroy Reform?” asked a headline in the  paper which is definitely not itself the establishment.

The Express, meanwhile, ran an article on the initial allegations, headlined “Reform UK plunged into new scandal as undercover ITV probe exposes violent, racist threats”. But they quickly reverted to type with a story about a Portsmouth councillor called George Madgwick claiming that ITV had broken the law by going undercover to report his colleague’s conduct.

Under the headline “Reform councillor accuses ITV of ‘election interference’ after undercover documentary”, reporter Aditi Rane said Madgwick had told her that: “By default ITV could have literally paid reporters to ruin an election result for Reform UK candidates. That has to be criminal.”

“He also said he had allowed the two men into his home, made them drinks and introduced them to his dogs, describing the experience as an ‘entirely disgusting invasion of personal privacy’,” the article said. “The councillor said he had photographs of the men but would not identify them publicly at this stage, adding that he might do so after receiving advice.” 

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Madgwick, though, wasn’t just a ‘Reform councillor’ but the party’s leader on Hampshire County Council and a senior campaign manager for the party who told ITV’s undercover reporter the far right Portsmouth Patriots group were working with Reform to get candidates elected.

“He described the group’s executive team as ‘good people’ and said its members were passionate local residents who cared about their community,” said the Express article of the masked anti-immigration group. “However, he acknowledged that people from outside the group had carried out ‘abhorrent things’, which he said should be condemned.”

And within days the paper was back into outright cheerleading for the party, with home affairs editor Michael Knowles’s exclusive interview with Nigel Farage headlined “Nigel Farage eviscerates ITV undercover hit on Reform UK – ‘they should spy on Tories!’’’. “The Reform UK leader, speaking exclusively to the Daily Express, dismissed fears people with racist views were particularly attracted to his party,” said the standfirst.

“You’ll find it in the pub tonight,” Farage was quoted as saying in the interview. “It’s people, and particularly if they’re provoking conversation. Not everyone’s been to Oxford University. Not everyone’s been to Eton.” 

Still, at least Express readers are aware of the controversy, unlike Sun readers, who can be forgiven for being entirely ignorant of it. Not a single article about it appears to have been published since the story broke, or since the programme aired.

The Sun’s last major story about the party was on October 12 when political correspondent Tom Scotson reported the news that Farage had “vowed to make Britain a ‘normal country’ again as he threatened to slap tariffs and flight bans on countries not taking back illegal migrants”. Nothing to see here!