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Reform UK accused of vetting failures after ‘extreme’ posts by new councillors uncovered
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May 13, 2025
Reform UK has been accused of lying about its vetting process after LBC was shown social media posts by newly elected councillors. The social media posts have been described as racist, Islamophobic, and misogynistic – including a post by one elected councillor who "joked" about beating his wife. After being marred by controversial candidates, Reform UK was forced to drop in last year’s general election campaign. The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, said it had since improved the vetting process, making it “as good if not better” than other parties. Tom Swarbrick asked deputy leader Richard Tice about immigration, benefits, and the controversial posts. Listen to the full show on Global Player: https://app.af.globalplayer.com/Br0x/LBCYouTubeListenLive #tomswarbrick #reform #immigration #politics #ukpolitics #richardtice #interview #exclusive #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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0:00
So let's start on the areas of this that you disagree with. Is there anything in this that you don't like
0:07
Yes, it's the fact that there's no number, there's no target. So how can we measure success
0:12
We're very clear we have a target on immigration, which is we want smart immigration with an overall number of net zero
0:19
So you can welcome some people in and some people are leaving the UK
0:24
And that is that's our clear ambition here. We've got no idea. What we do know is that he refused to essentially disown the number from the ONS last week that immigration would be about half a million every year into the future, frankly
0:42
And he didn't he didn't in any way demur from that. And half a million is too many for reform, is it
0:51
I think it's too many for everybody in the country. It's certainly too many for reform supporters and the reform leadership
0:58
And half a million is completely unsustainable from a housing point of view
1:02
from a public service point of view. And it just suppresses British wages
1:07
Well, you're right to say he hasn't put a figure on it. He said it will come down significantly, although what that means still needs some clarifying
1:12
When you talk about your idea of net zero, though, presumably you could have immigration at half a million
1:17
If half a million people leave and we need half a million people to come into the country, you would do that in power, no? That's broadly what net zero means
1:25
Yes. So you could have. And you measure that over a probably a three year period. You can't do that
1:30
exactly annually. But you can have a sort of sensible target of that. And I think we could
1:35
achieve that. And you can highlight the particular areas where you've got shortages whilst you train
1:40
up your own people to deal with those shortages. And that is the, frankly, that's the smart thing
1:46
to do. So one of the areas that they are talking about is social care visas. Too many people
1:51
coming in on social care visas. Why would reform, do you think it's right that people
1:57
are told to go and work in social care when clearly people in this country don't want
2:01
to work in social care Well they used to want to work in social care And the reason that they haven is because we had mass cheap low skilled immigration That job has been downgraded and wages haven kept pace with what they should have done What you need to do with social care is to treat it because it all part of health care
2:20
And health care and social care should be managed much more closely. When I was in a care home in Boston a few weeks ago, talking to nurses, carers and the management
2:31
they didn't talk about a recruitment crisis. No, they talked about a process crisis
2:35
the problems with bureaucracy and management relative to the NHS that was delaying patient
2:42
care and frankly hindering patient care. That's what concerns me more. Social care workers are
2:47
on the shortage occupation list, as identified by the Office for Migration. Would you take it
2:54
off that list? Should it be on that list at all? I think we do need to move it off that list. I
2:58
think we've got to make it a great trade. Well, you say that, but 100,000 care worker visas have
3:05
been issued in the last three years and it doesn't seem to be getting on top of the issue so maybe
3:09
it's an issue of wages and respect and training our own people we do need to get we can't afford
3:16
to have five to six million people on out of work benefits and just think that we can keep bringing
3:23
in um modestly low-paid uh people from overseas what we might need to have to say to people look
3:29
actually if you if you're on benefits then maybe actually we need to train you in things like
3:36
social care and get you into a really important job but if they don't want to do it what are you
3:40
going to do then then frankly frankly end of benefits you know you can't make a lifestyle
3:46
decision to sit on your backside at home watching telly whilst other people are going to work to pay
3:52
your benefits we have to have that discussion and say if you can work you should work social care
3:58
work in the community is a vital part of our communities. And people have to understand that
4:04
I think we've got to be crystal clear about it. I see that your leader has said that he would
4:09
allow some essential migration in areas with skill shortages, but that numbers would be capped
4:14
So you would have a cap on migration What would that be The whole point is it net zero It fluid depending on the as I said earlier depending on particular occupations that may be plus or minus a bit the ideal is you train
4:29
up and skill up your own people and then you welcome some people in and your overall target
4:35
though should be net zero so you might have a cap on on a particular trade occupation industry sector
4:41
but your overall target should be net zero we've got plenty of people approaching 70 million
4:47
a record high population in this country so but we've got nine million people that are economically
4:53
inactive if we can get a couple of million people back into work you save huge sums on benefits
4:58
and it's good for families it's good for communities and that means it's good for our
5:02
country you might save some on benefits but of course you would drive up the cost of social care
5:06
further if more people need to be paid more money in order to do the job
5:11
But if you actually remove the unnecessary blockages and processes that I'm starting to
5:15
discover, then you reduce, you make care workers more efficient. You reduce the cost because they
5:22
are being hindered by the processes, the blockages that go on as to what they're allowed to do as
5:26
opposed to what doctors and asked processes that have procedures that have to be done in hospitals
5:31
this is costing money. It's wasting time. It's damaging patient care in care homes. So there are
5:38
ways, yes, you might spend a bit more on wages, but you might save a fortune on unnecessary doctor
5:43
visits, unnecessary use of ambulances, which therefore bring down ambulance waiting times
5:48
and so on and so on. That's what I mean by efficiency gains and cutting out waste
5:53
One of the suggestions is that the Prime Minister has brought this forward, this announcement
5:58
forward because of the results of the local elections, results that saw a number of serious
6:03
reform gains, Kent being perhaps the most sort of marquee gain for reform. We have been having a
6:09
look at some of the social media posts of some of the councillors have been elected in Kent. And I just wonder whether it is the Reform Party's policy to stand by suggestions like
6:18
Bill Gates has been geoengineering the planet and playing God, as one of the new councillors
6:23
has suggested? Well, obviously, I haven studied every one of the 677 councillors social media posts Other people have In a sense some But have they The issue is there seem to be a lot of posts by a lot of people
6:38
now councillors in Kent, with incredibly disparaging remarks about women telling not to build mosques because they divide communities
6:44
If something requires investigation, they will be investigated. So these people will be investigated now
6:51
Anybody that's inappropriate will be looked at and investigated. Obviously, you're bouncing me into something live
6:57
I've no idea whether that's true or not. What I do know is when I was previously bounced live into something by LBC with a different presenter, it turned out to be false
7:05
So I'm not going to respond automatically to that sort of thing. But if you've got concerns, send it through. The team will look at it
7:11
But the key point is we've done so well. We've taken control of one control of 10 councils because voters are so cross about immigration, both legal and illegal
7:22
And yes, the prime minister has responded to that. He's actually adopted some of our language and essentially copied it in terms of the need to integrate, the need to work, the need to learn the language
7:34
All of these things are good things. And it's good that the prime minister is listening and learning from Reform UK policy
7:40
But what he's got to do is put a number on it. We might disagree on the number, but at least put a number on it
7:46
The Tories won't even put a number on it. They just sort of say it'll be a parliamentary vote. Well, that hasn't worked out very well over recent years, has it
7:52
I mean, the Tories told us that they were going to bring down immigration and they deliberately did exactly the opposite
7:58
Yes, although you don't put an exact number on it either. You just call it net zero. Well, that is a number that is net naught. Literally, that's what I mean, that is the definition of zero
8:06
I know, but the number of people incoming could be anything depending on the number of people leaving
8:11
And you say dependent on certain areas of the workforce and the economy that might need more people
8:15
The long term average of the number of people leaving the UK every year is give or take 400,000
8:20
Now, the data could improve. It's not that accurate. But that is about the long term average. And you can you know, there can be a bit of plus or minus. But if the economy is doing well, if we're running our public services well, if the if the country works, which currently it doesn't, if the country is not heading towards bankruptcy, which currently is less people want to leave. So that's how the number varies
8:40
Very good to talk to you. Appreciate your time. Thanks for coming on
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