ITV’s exposé raises fresh questions on Reform, racism, misogyny and ‘bad apples’, says John Crace
Few Reform voices respond
The Guardian’s John Crace described the absence of Reform MPs from Monday morning broadcasts as striking after ITV’s Sunday night exposé. He wrote that viewers might have expected MPs to defend the party and challenge the journalists’ reporting.
Richard Tice was the only MP mentioned as posting on X that morning. His complaint concerned British Airways, which he said had mislaid at least one of his bags. The article noted that he had recently married Isabel Oakeshott.
Goodwin calls them bad apples
Matt Goodwin, Reform’s failed candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, appeared publicly to defend the party. He characterised ITV’s findings as involving only a few bad apples and suggested the programme had done Reform a favour.
The article says ITV filmed about 10 Reform councillors and found that seven held views including that King Charles should be beheaded for being a Muslim. Crace contrasted that figure with Goodwin’s description of the findings as limited, while also criticising Goodwin personally.
Streeting faces defence questions
In the Commons, Wes Streeting faced departmental defence questions. Crace wrote that Streeting criticised his predecessor, John Healey, over spending on training exercises, then expressed confidence Healey would meet the 3% and 3.5% targets at next year’s spending review.
Streeting had met US secretary of war Pete Hegseth the previous week. According to the article, Hegseth repeated Donald Trump’s claims that Nato forces had contributed little in Afghanistan, and later said Washington supported Ukraine, provided Russia won the war.
Key points
- ITV’s investigation reported widespread racism and misogyny within Reform.
- Goodwin described the findings as involving a few bad apples.
- ITV filmed about 10 Reform councillors, seven of whom expressed views including a call to behead King Charles.
- Streeting said he was confident Healey would meet spending targets at next year’s review.