// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Farage defends Reform's vetting after councillors filmed making racist comments
Warning: This report contains racist and offensive language.
Nigel Farage has insisted Reform UK does not have an issue with vetting, after ITV News broadcast undercover filming of some of its councillors and candidates using racist, violent and sexist language.
The Reform leader told BBC Look East his party vetted "to a much higher standard than other parties" but "you can't vet for future comments".
In the film, Undercover: A Year in Reform, external, a Reform councillor and deputy mayor of Solihull is recorded calling Asian homeowners "parasites".
ITV's filming, gathered over a year, involved eight figures in Reform – the BBC does not know how many it spoke to in total.
Reform says the people filmed by ITV are all under investigation, and have already either resigned or been suspended.
Two years ago, Farage vowed to root out "bad apples" among Reform's candidates, saying "bigots" and "extremists" were not welcome.
Defending the party's vetting processes, Farage told BBC Look East: "You can't vet for future comments. You can look at someone's CV. You can look at someone's social media...
"I can't predict what they're going to say after a drink, when they're being provoked by somebody or egged on to say something."
Pressed over whether the party had an issue with vetting, he said: "No, not at all. We actually vet to a much higher standard than the other parties."