Reform UK has reported the broadcaster ITV to the police over a recent undercover documentary in which some of the party’s councillors and candidates were filmed allegedly making racist and sexist comments.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, on Wednesday alleged ITV’s tactics in making the programme may have broken the law, and said the party was taking legal action against the company’s board of directors and the journalists involved.
The documentary, Undercover: A Year in Reform, showed a Reform councillor in Solihull referring to Asian residents as “parasites”, while another councillor in Bromley falsely claimed King Charles was a Muslim and said he should be beheaded. Other people linked to Nigel Farage’s party were filmed making sexually aggressive comments about colleagues.
All the councillors and activists involved have been suspended or left the party since excerpts of the documentary were first broadcast last week, before it aired in full on Sunday.
The complaint to the police is likely to raise questions over how Reform would treat press freedoms if it won power, while Yusuf claimed the reporters overstepped the line, alleging that they “directly interfered in elections and almost certainly altered the results”.
“Anyone breaking the law to try and ruin the lives of Reform’s staff, members or volunteers will be reported to the police and pursued relentlessly in the courts,” Yusuf said on X.
Responding to the complaint, ITV said it “stands by its journalism” and that the documentary “was produced in compliance with the Ofcom broadcasting code, relevant laws, and its broadcast is in the public interest”.
“Should the police get in touch, we would fully co-operate,” ITV added.
ITV’s documentary followed another undercover documentary in September by Channel 4, which showed senior figures in Reform discussing apparent illicit funding from foreign donors.
Reform has denied any wrongdoing and has released an internal report that cleared two senior aides to Farage who had been suspended from the party. A police investigation is continuing.
Yusuf claimed that one of the reporters in the ITV documentary had “digitally altered” her passport to help bypass Reform’s checks when applying for a job with the party, which he alleged was fraud.
Two other ITV reporters, who said they were called Ken and Nigel, had canvassed for the party in the May local elections in Portsmouth in areas the party went on to narrowly lose by a “handful” of votes, he added.
Yusuf did not name the police force to which the complaint had been submitted. A spokesperson for Reform did not respond to a request to clarify.
The Metropolitan Police in London did not immediately respond to a FT request for comment.