In a press conference in London, Nigel Farage repeatedly resisted calls to discipline the Runcorn and Helsby MP, who has faced condemnation from across the political spectrum
Nigel Farage has dismissed accusations of racism against one of his MPs who said it made her “mad” to see adverts full of Black and Asian people.
The Reform UK leader said he was “unhappy” with the “ugly” comments made by Sarah Pochin but insisted her intention was not to be racist. In a press conference in London, he repeatedly resisted calls to discipline the Runcorn and Helsby MP, who has faced condemnation from across the political spectrum.
“I am unhappy with what she has done,” he said. “I understand the basic point, but the way she put it, the way she worded it, was wrong and was ugly, and if I thought that the intention behind it was racist, I would have taken a lot more action than I have to date.”
Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for Ms Pochin to have the party whip withdrawn, while flip-flopping Tory Chris Philp eventually said her remarks were racist.
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Keir Starmer on Monday accused Mr Farage of showing “absolutely no leadership”. Asked if she was racist to make the comments, the Prime Minister said: “Yes, she was. It’s shocking racism and it’s the sort of thing that will tear our country apart, and it tells you everything about Reform.
” Nigel Farage has got some questions to answer, because either he doesn’t consider it racist, which in my view is shocking in itself, or he does think it’s racist and he’s shown absolutely no leadership.
“I’m the Prime Minister of the whole of our country, our reasonable, tolerant, diverse country, and I want to serve the whole country. “He can’t even call out racism.”
Asked whether Ms Pochin should have the whip removed, the PM said: “He [Farage] needs to take action, it’s not a question of just the whip, this is shocking racism, it has to be dealt with and it should be rooted out of his party. And the question for Nigel Farage is, why has he shown absolutely no leadership on this?”
Ms Pochin was forced to apologise on Saturday after an explosive backlash to her comments. In response to a viewer complaining about the demographics of advertising, she said they were “absolutely right”, adding: “It drives me mad when I see adverts full of Black people, full of Asian people”.
Ms Pochin went on a rant against the “woke liberati” in advertising, claiming “it doesn’t reflect our society” and “your average white person, average white family is… not represented any more”. She later apologised for causing offence and said her point had been “phrased poorly”.
Mr Farage used his press conference to call on Parliament to “step up” and launch its own investigation into the grooming gangs scandal. Despite demanding an inquiry in January, Mr Farage suggested it was moving too slowly and said a joint initiative by both the Commons and Lords could lead to the launch of a special commission into the scandal.