Nigel Farage has insisted he is not “stoking the flames of anything” as he defends his handling of the racist row involving the UK’s Reform party.
Farage appeared on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips following controversy over a reformist colporteur who was caught making a racial slur about the Prime Minister in a secret investigation.
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The UK’s reform leader said: “Political parties attract all kinds of people. I’ve always thought that politics brings out the best and worst in people and I’m not fanning the flames of anything. I want unity in this country .”
Pressed on why his party seems to attract people who hold extremist views, the former UKIP leader said it was because he had ousted the British Nationalist Party (BNP) “as an electoral force”.
“Ironically, destroying the BNP means that people who think this way will no longer have a home to go to and therefore some will gravitate towards us,” he added.
Farage went on to say that “anyone who has a racist point of view, I don’t want to know”.
He added: “I want to live, Trevor, in a country that is literally colorblind. I don’t care what color you are. I’m not interested in your sexuality. my agenda.”
The undercover investigation, carried out by Channel 4, showed reform activist Andrew Parker using the racial slur “C***” to describe the prime minister, describing Islam as a “disgusting cult” and saying the army should “just shoot ” in migrants crossing the Channel.
Another canvasser described the Pride flag as “degenerate” and suggested that members of the LGBT community are pedophiles.
The Reformation of the United Kingdom also had to abandon several electoral candidates because of the racist remarks they made.
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Farage has been criticized by both the Conservatives and Labor over the controversy, after refusing to apologize and even claiming that Parker was a “paid actor” who was part of a “deliberate attempt to derail our campaign”.
Mr Sunak was particularly furious and made the decision to repeat the slander made about him to “scream what it was”.
Sunak ‘hurt’ by reformist race row
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, from the BBC, the prime minister reinforced his attack on Farage, saying that he showed “no contrition or remorse”.
Asked how the reform fight was different to the case of Frank Hester, a Conservative donor who allegedly made racist comments about Diane Abbott, Sunak said: “The difference is that Nigel Farage has just described those comments (from Mr Parker) as inappropriate .
“They are not inappropriate. They were vile, racist and wrong.
“The person who made them just apologized to the Reform Party for the impact it had on them. It’s a very clear difference. There is no contrition or remorse and/or acceptance of what happened in this case.”
Hester, who donated £15 million to the Conservative party, apologized for the comments he made about Ms Abbott, but claimed they had “nothing to do with her sex or skin colour”.
Sunak was criticized for the way he initially responded to allegations about the party’s main donor, before finally condemning the comments as “racist”.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
