Undercover recordings raise questions over Reform UK candidate vetting

An undercover ITV reporter who said he had posted in support of far-right activist Tommy Robinson was advised by a local Reform UK official to delete the posts and encouraged to apply to stand as a councillor. The exchange, published on Thursday, raises fresh questions about the party’s candidate checks, although it does not show the reporter being approved to stand. [1]

Ian Frost, then chairman of Reform’s Chester branch, described their meeting as the “first stage” of vetting. He suggested deleting the social media account and starting again. Frost told ITV he had regarded the reporter as a genuine prospective candidate and given him the benefit of the doubt. He said he had since left Reform for unrelated reasons. [1]

A second account in the ITV investigation concerns Alex Lomas, who told an undercover reporter that Reform had rejected him twice during vetting, including over posts he had shared from Robinson. He said he was then told he had passed and was asked to stand. Reform denies that Lomas failed vetting in the first place. [1] [2]

Lomas did stand for Reform in Chadderton Central, Oldham, at the May local election. He received 1,015 votes, finishing 200 behind Labour’s winning candidate, Nazrul Islam. The official result confirms his candidacy, but cannot settle the dispute about the earlier vetting decisions. [3]

The investigation also shows differing views at the top of Reform over Chris Parry, who was then its mayoral candidate for Hampshire and the Solent. After Parry questioned the loyalty of David Lammy and other black and Asian politicians to Britain, communications director Ed Sumner was recorded saying Parry should go. In a later conversation, Sumner told Nigel Farage he was “protecting” Parry; Farage said Parry should apologise to Lammy and move on. Parry apologised in January, was suspended in March pending an investigation over separate comments, and later told the BBC that no investigation took place. He has left the party. [1] [2]