The facts
Reform UK is under renewed scrutiny after ITV News aired undercover footage recorded over a year. In the video, local party chairman Ian Frost tells an undercover reporter, who had posted in support of far‑right activist Tommy Robinson, that he should delete those posts and start his account again before applying to stand as a councillor. The film also includes former Reform candidate Alex Lomas, who says he failed the party’s vetting process twice – once for sharing Robinson‑related posts – yet was later invited to stand in the Oldham local elections in May 2026. Reform UK denied that Lomas failed vetting and said the party had “improved and prioritised its vetting procedures”. A party statement acknowledged that “a handful of individuals who do not share our values will initially make it through vetting”. Nigel Farage told BBC Look East that Reform’s vetting is conducted “to a much higher standard than other parties”, but added you can’t vet for future comments. The party also accused ITV of using “extreme methods of deception” in its investigation.
Our take
Well, it’s official: Reform UK’s vetting process is about as thorough as a piss in a public toilet. The only thing they’re screening for is whether you’re stupid enough to get caught on camera before you delete your Tommy Robinson‑related posts. Their big innovation? A local chairman whispering the political equivalent of ‘chew this mint’ to an undercover reporter, because the core value here isn’t principle, it’s plausible deniability. It’s not a values check, it’s a social‑media carwash for dickheads. The party line claims their vetting is now ‘improved and prioritised’, which from this footage apparently means they’ve upgraded from a blindfold to a pair of heavily smudged spectacles. They admit a ‘handful’ of wrong‑uns slip through, which is the political version of a chef saying ‘a handful of turds in the soup is the same for all restaurants’. Most organisations don’t build their roster from a pool of people who need to be told that supporting far‑right gobshites might be a bad look. Then there’s Alex Lomas, who says he failed this rigorous process twice – once for the classic Robinson fanboy posting – only to get an invitation to stand in 2026 anyway. Reform denies he failed, which means their vetting is so high‑standard it can’t even vet its own past failures. Nigel Farage waddles out to claim their checks are ‘to a much higher standard than other parties’. Higher standard of what? Forgetting? Hypocrisy? The only thing they’re vetting to a higher standard is the public’s fucking patience. Their defence? Crying about ITV’s ‘extreme methods of deception’. Sorry, lads, the extreme deception here is you pretending you give a single shit who you put on a ballot as long as they can fog a mirror and hide the racism before they send the application. Your entire vetting procedure is a suggestion box that says ‘please be less of a cunt, but only if you’re recorded’. It’s a bullshit pantomime for gullible pricks, performed by vain, grifting arseholes who think governance is a game of hide‑the‑fascist. Next they’ll be vetting candidates on their ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in their head at once – oh wait, that’s already a requirement.
