London: A campaigner for Nigel Farage, the Reform Party leader in the UK, has called for mosques to be “turned into Wetherspoons pubs,” The Times reported on Friday.
The comments add to wider controversy over the behavior of Reform candidates and officials.
An undercover reporter from Channel 4 filmed the canvasser, Andrew Parker, in Clacton, the seat Farage is targeting at next week’s general election.
Parker gives advice to the reporter ahead of meeting voters in the coastal town. “Use the word ‘illegal.’ Emphasise ‘illegal’ especially if you open the door and there’s a bunch of P***s,” he said.
Parker added: “I tell you what, if you don’t know about Islam, it is the most disgusting cult out. We’re kicking all the Muslims out of the mosques and turning them into Wetherspoons.”
In one conversation with a resident on a doorstep, he called for the army to use migrants for “target practice” as a method to end illegal immigration.
“You’ve got Deal (barracks), haven’t you. The place near Dover. Army recruitment. Get the young recruits there, yeah, with guns on the beach, target practice … just shoot them,” he said.
Parker also referred to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a “f***ing P***” in the footage aired by Channel 4.
Farage described the comments as “appalling” and said Reform will end its association with Parker.
The sentiments “expressed by some in these exchanges bear no relation to my own views, those of the vast majority of our supporters or Reform UK policy,” Farage added.
Parker told Channel 4: “I would like to make it clear that neither Nigel Farage personally or the Reform Party are aware of my personal views on immigration.
“I have never discussed immigration with either Nigel Farage or the Reform Party and any comments made by me during those recordings are my own personal views on any subject I commented on.
“At no time before I was sent out to canvass did I discuss my personal views with any representative of the Reform Party or Nigel Farage.”
