Farage brands Reform MP's comments 'ugly and wrong'

Nigel Farage has described comments made by one of his MPs as “ugly” and “wrong” after she said she was driven “mad” by advertisements featuring Black and Asian people.

- CAITLIN DOHERTY

The Reform UK leader said he was “unhappy” with what Sarah Pochin had said, but stopped short of calling her remarks racist. He told a press conference in London yesterday: "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."

During an appearance on TalkTV over the weekend, Ms Pochin, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, responded to a viewer who complained about the demographics of advertising, saying she thought the viewer was "absolutely right".

She then added: "It drives me mad when I see adverts full of Black people, full of Asian people."

Mr Farage said he was "unhappy" with what his MP had said, but that her remarks had been made in the context of "DEI madness" - a reference to measures taken by governments to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion.

It came as Sir Keir Starmer described Ms Pochin’s comments as amounting to “shocking racism”.