Reform Party sources have accused Channel 4’s undercover plants of “shameful” and “unethical” behaviour by attempting to “trap” volunteers into making remarks about Tommy Robinson and George Floyd, GB News can reveal.
Sources from Nigel Farage’s Party in Clacton told this broadcaster that Channel 4’s undercover reporters intentionally attempted to spark conversations around controversial subjects so as to provoke Reform volunteers.
One Reform source told GB News: “The two Channel 4 stooges were obsessed with Tommy Robinson, going up to random volunteers and trying to start a conversation about him.”
“No one took the bait and they were given short shrift.
“When they weren’t doing that they were talking about George Floyd.”
The Reform source continued: “It was all a bit much and quite strange, but they told people they’d never done any political campaigning before so I think people gave them the benefit of the doubt.”
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK Party leader, has surged in the polls
PA
“Looking back at their actions, it is clear they were attempting to provoke volunteers into making statements deemed not politically correct.”
“It is unethical, and frankly shameless, for these men to have tried to trap people in this way so they could destroy their lives using the might of the major left-wing broadcaster they worked for.”
Channel 4’s undercover investigation into Reform Party leafleters last week sparked a major political row when one volunteer, Andrew Parker, was found to have made racist remarks about the Prime Minister.
The volunteer’s comments made headline news, and Rishi Sunak even waded into the row.
However, the media’s focus on the comments of one Reform UK volunteer has been criticised by some who say the story has been blown out of proportion.
Connor Tomlinson, a broadcaster and commentator from the centre-right platform the Lotus Eaters, said: “The fact that the production team working on behalf of Channel 4 felt the need to steer the conversation toward contentious topics about race shows how disingenuous this attack on Reform UK’s integrity is.”
“The campaigners who sacrificed their time to canvas for Mr Farage in Clacton were confused, and didn’t provide the sensationalist footage the undercover operatives hoped for.”
“If they had, so much of the so-called expose would not have been dedicated to Andrew Parker, whose undisclosed past as an actor has cast the veracity of the whole report into doubt.”
“Channel 4 attempted the same hit job against the Brexit Party in 2019. This is a clear case of a political hatchet job aimed at smearing anti-immigration parties as racist.”
Another Reform Party source told GB News: “I spent a few days canvassing for Reform in Clacton and met and chatted with a couple of dozen volunteers during that time.”
He continued: “A mixture of ages – some retired, others younger, some local and some down from London and elsewhere; All were intelligent, sensible and motivated people.”
“I did not come across Andrew Parker while I was there. None of the volunteers I encountered and spoke with said anything offensive, certainly not of the nature of the comments made by Andrew Parker.
“It is an extraordinary coincidence – and probably not a coincidence – that Channel 4 just happened to be filming when Andrew Parker made these comments.”
Harrison Pitt, a senior editor at The European Conservative and a political commentator at the New Culture Forum, said: “These ham-fisted hit-job attempts smack of desperation and panic.”
“They go to show that the ‘journalists’ working in legacy media are not curious investigators, but second-rate activists under another name – courtiers of an establishment that lives in fear of anything to the right of politically correct, boilerplate centrism.”
“Reform UK should be sure to learn the right lesson: there is no point in pandering to people who will always hate you.”
“These attempts may have failed in one sense. But they will have succeeded in a much larger sense if they spook Reform into playing things safe and becoming neutered as a political force.”
A spokesperson for Channel 4 News said: “We strongly stand by our rigorous and duly impartial journalism which speaks for itself.”
“We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser.
“We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report. Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation.”
