Reform UK has suspended aspiring parliamentary candidate Jason Powell after an ITV undercover documentary recorded him declaring that Muslims cannot be British and calling for migrants arriving by small boats to be held in "concentration camps". The footage, from the year-long ITV investigation Undercover: A Year in Reform aired Sunday night, October 18, 2026, has reignited scrutiny of Reform UK's vetting and put Nigel Farage's leadership under renewed pressure.
What the undercover footage showed
Powell was filmed at "Farage Fest", a summer party thanking volunteers who helped Farage win the Clacton by-election. He told an undercover reporter he had passed Reform UK's vetting to stand as a parliamentary candidate. Calling himself "pretty hardline about Islam", he said he would clash with the party's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf because Yusuf is Muslim:
"If a Muslim's prepared to de-convert, I'm happy. But if they want to remain faithful to Islam... you cannot be a Muslim and British... it's like oil and water."
On Channel small-boat arrivals, he said anyone crossing in the first week after an election should be rounded up and held in "concentration camps", and those who refused to reveal their true country of origin should be told: "You're staying here for the rest of your life." Powell later defended his remarks, saying they reflected the views of the British people rather than extremism.
How Reform UK responded
A Reform spokesman confirmed Powell had been suspended pending an internal investigation: "Where members, activists and councillors have clearly behaved inappropriately, investigations have commenced. In some cases, there have been suspensions and due process must be followed."
In a statement to ITV, the party said there is "no room for racism" in Reform UK, adding it had "improved and prioritised its vetting procedures" but conceding that "a handful of individuals who do not share our values will initially make it through vetting". Farage claimed the ITV Exposure probe, produced with Hardcash Productions, was carried out "because the establishment frankly want us out of the picture", and said of vetting: "you can't vet people for what they say in the future." The party is also pursuing legal action against ITV and the production company over the undercover reporting.
Other figures caught in the same investigation
Reform is also investigating two councillors from the London borough of Hounslow, David Kerr and Adam Parkins, who were recorded discussing the mass shooting of grooming-gang members — Kerr advocating "machine gunning" them and Parkins saying he would "quite happily do Sunday morning rose garden executions" as prime minister. The party later said no further action would follow, calling their remarks personal opinions on the death penalty made in a believed-private conversation; Parkins told the BBC the view was "a perfectly legitimate opinion".
Earlier footage from the probe had already prompted several Reform councillors to quit. Alan Feeney resigned on Friday after being filmed calling parts of his area "infested" with Asian families, later admitting his remarks were wrong and unacceptable. Dean Miller resigned from Reform and now sits as an independent after describing black children as "animals" and calling for King Charles to be beheaded on the claim the monarch was secretly Muslim.
Reaction across the political spectrum
Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson called Farage "completely unfit to lead": "Bad apples don't fall far from the tree. The sleaze, scandals and appalling revelations of racism and rank misogyny piling up by the day go right to the top of Reform UK."
The Muslim Council of Britain said suspensions alone were not enough to address what it described as a culture of hatred within the party. In Bromley, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors issued a rare joint statement calling on Miller to resign. Farage insists the party does vet its candidates, arguing the reporter provoked the comments and that Conservative councillors would have said similar things under the same treatment.
Takeaway: The broadcast is the latest test of Farage's pledge to professionalise Reform UK and purge extremists from its ranks. With the party suing ITV while insisting there is "no room for racism" in its ranks, how effectively it vets — and disciplines — its people will stay at the centre of Westminster debate.
Sources: Brit Brief | Hello Faread | PapaLinc | Global 1 News
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Hitman (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0