An undercover investigation by ITV has revealed that Nigel Farage was told by a senior Reform official that he was "protecting" a high-profile mayoral candidate accused of making racist comments about David Lammy.
The latest footage also shows Sarah Pochin, one of two female Reform MPs, complaining that other party officials "are so fucking chauvinistic" and that "they just exclude you if you are a woman".
The candidate at the centre of the row is Chris Parry, a retired rear admiral picked to contest the Hampshire and the Solent mayoral election. The party stood by Parry for months after it emerged that he had said the former foreign secretary should "go home to the Caribbean" last year, and suggested that at least eight other politicians from minority ethnic backgrounds do not have a primary loyalty towards the UK.
Reform eventually suspended Parry in March after the Guardian revealed other remarks. Clips from the ITV documentary show Farage pushing back against senior advisers who said the candidate had to be sacked, including Ed Sumner, Reform's head of communications, who told another press officer that Parry was "clearly a racist".
Sumner was filmed saying "He needs to go, I'm getting rid of him" when the controversy broke last December. Parry was still the candidate three weeks later, with Farage telling a press conference that the candidate could stay if he apologised.