Police have concluded “no criminal offence” was committed by Reform UK activists after reviewing the recent expose into the party’s activists.
Last week, an undercover reporter for Channel 4 News secretly filmed supporters of Nigel Farage’s party using racist and misogynistic language.
A party canvasser, Andrew Parker, was filmed saying: “I’ve always been a Tory voter, but what annoys me is that fucking P*** we’ve got in.
“What good is he? You tell me, you know. He’s just wet. Fucking useless.”
He was also heard advocating shooting people arriving in the UK by small boats across the England Channel, saying,“fucking just shoot them”, and suggested Reform should “kick Muslims out of mosques and turn them into Wetherspoons”.
A senior Farage aide was also seen in the footage looking at a police car with a Pride flag displayed. They said: “What are the old bill doing promoting that crap? They should be out catching nonces not promoting the fuckers.”
The investigation prompted the local police force to announce they were “urgently assessing” the material.
But on Wednesday, Essex Police said they had reviewed the footage and found no evidence of a crime.
In a statement, the force said: “Having assessed the comments made during a Channel 4 news programme, and all other information available to us, we have concluded that no criminal offences have taken place.”
PM Rishi Sunak responded to the racist term used about him last Friday by saying “it makes me angry” and said Farage “has some questions to answer”.
The Reform leader then released a statement saying he was ’dismayed by the reported comments of a handful of people associated with my local campaign” and said they would no longer be with the campaign.
Channel 4 and Parker both had to deny last week that the activist was an actor who was paid to be in the video, after Farage stoked the conspiracy.
He claimed on X: “Andrew Parker was the man that made the astonishing racist comments that have given us so much negative coverage. We now learn that he is an actor by profession.”
Channel 4 said it stood by “our rigorous and duly impartial journalism which speaks for itself”, and explained its reporters first met Parker at Reform UK headquarters when he was a party canvasser.
Parker himself apologised to Press Association for his remarks, saying: “Of course I’m sorry. They were off-the-cuff things that everyone says.”
Reform confirmed Parker was a volunteer for the party but said he was longer part of the campaign.
Less than a week after those comments were first publicised, two Reform candidates officially defected to the Conservatives.
Georgie David said she believed the “vast majority” of those standing for the party are “racist, misogynistic and bigoted”, while Liam Booth-Isherwood accused the leadership of not taking racism within Reform seriously.