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June 28, 2024 – 8:39 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was deeply “hurt” on Friday after being the target of a racist abuse by a member of Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration party, who called it a “trap” in the middle of the election campaign.
A week before the July 4 elections, Channel 4 broadcast a report on Thursday evening, produced through an undercover operation, in which an activist from the party founded by the Brexit champion makes racist remarks, particularly against the head of the Conservative government, who is of Indian origin.
“My two daughters find themselves seeing and hearing people from Reform UK, who campaign for Nigel Farage, calling me a ‘fucking Paki’. It hurts me. And it makes me angry,” Rishi Sunak said on Friday, his voice briefly cracking with emotion.
Nigel Farage, a figure of the British far right who rejects this designation, will have to “answer questions on this subject”, added the Prime Minister.
He explained that he repeated these insults deliberately “because it is too important not to clearly say what it is about”.
The activist Andrew Parker, who uttered the insult, and another member of the Reform UK campaign, were dismissed by Nigel Farage after the broadcast of these images, captured within the party team in the constituency of Clacton -on-Sea (south-east England).
It is in this seaside resort that this figure of the Brexit campaign hopes to be elected, after having failed seven times to win a seat in the House of Commons.
Polls suggest Reform UK will come in third or fourth behind Labour and the Conservatives in terms of voting intentions.
But according to a study published Friday by the Daily Mirror, and carried out on Wednesday and Thursday, therefore before the broadcast of the report, Reform UK would come second with 21%, ahead of the Conservatives (18%), but far behind Labour (38%).
Homophobic comments
Andrew Parker also suggested that new army recruits should practice shooting at migrants crossing the Channel illegally in small boats.
Another member of the Reform UK campaign was filmed making racist and then homophobic comments, calling the LGBT flag “degenerate”.
On ITV, Nigel Farage argued on Friday that “no one” had done more than him to “drive out the far right” from British politics.
“And if you want to hurt me, you set me up with someone who claims to be on my side and who says despicable things,” he continued, posing as the victim of an operation to discredit him because his party would be the only one to want real change.
“This is all a complete and utter sham,” Farage said, suggesting that actor Andrew Parker was acting. “I don’t know if he was paid or not,” “I’m saying it’s possible, I don’t know, there’s something wrong with that,” Farage said.
“Provoked”
But Andrew Parker distinguished with the British news agency PA his activism within Reform UK and the job of actor that he exercises part-time.
He did, however, claim that he had been “pushed” by his interlocutor to make the remarks that were recorded.
Channel 4 has denied that Mr Parker is being paid and defended his “rigorous and impartial journalism”.
“We met Mr. Parker at the headquarters of the Reform UK party, where he was an activist,” said the channel, ensuring that it filmed him without his knowledge and that it did not pay anyone for this report.
Labor leader Keir Starmer, tipped to become the next prime minister, said he was “shocked” by this sequence and questioned Nigel Farage’s ability to lead his party.
According to the anti-racist association Hope Not Hate, in view of the legislative elections, Reform UK has had to give up 166 candidates since the start of the year, many of them having made racist remarks or offensive.
