British politician Nigel Farage says he has been let down after his campaigners were filmed making racist and homophobic comments and a candidate was linked to a far-right party.
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An undercover television reporter recorded one of Farage's canvassers calling for migrants crossing the English Channel to be used as "target practice" and another describing the Pride flag as a "degenerate" ensign and suggesting members of the LGBTQI community are pedophiles.
"We've had one or two candidates that have said things they shouldn't have said. In most cases they're just speaking like ordinary folk," Fararge told a campaign event in Lincolnshire.
"They're not part of the mainstream political Oxbridge speak, we understand that. In some cases one or two people let us down and we let them go.
"Well, compare that to the international price-fixing and betting ring that is the modern-day Conservative Party."
A Channel 4 undercover investigation into the Reform UK campaign at Clacton where Farage is vying for a seat in the July 4 election recorded canvasser Andrew Parker saying army recruits should use migrants arriving by small boats in Kent as "target practice".
He was also recorded using a racial slur against the prime minister and labelling Islam a "disgusting cult".
In a statement Parker apologised and said he had never discussed immigration with Farage or the Reform Party.
"I would therefore like to apologise profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute as this was not my intention."
The Guardian reported Reform UK withdrew support from candidate Raymond Saint, who allegedly appeared on a list of members of the far-right British National Party (BNP) published on the website WikiLeaks more than a decade ago.
Farage has previously said he had an "absolute rule" to block anyone linked to the BNP or similar organisations from being a member of his party.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned his campaigners they have "one week to save Britain from a Labour government" in an "urgent" plea for support, sharing his fear that his opponents would "shunt our politics to the left".
"We have one week to save Britain from a Labour government - now, a Labour government that would raise everyone's taxes by STG2000 ($A3800), that would shunt our politics to the left, that would change the rules so that they're in power for decades," Sunak said in a speech at Leeds on Thursday night.
"We can't let Britain sleepwalk into that."
He faced questions about his party's new attack line "don't surrender your family's future to Labour", after a Conservative poster bearing the line featured a picture of a man, woman and child holding their hands in the air in surrender.
"I don't want people to surrender our borders to Labour, our welfare system to Labour, our national security to Labour," Sunak said.
Labour Leader Keir Starmer was quizzed about the extent of his ambitions and whether a landslide victory could be a "wasted opportunity" in an interview with Sky.
"The first steps are down payment. They're not all what we want to do, but until we get the waiting list down, frankly, we're going to struggle with the change that we need because we can't get our economy going," he said.
"We need to stabilise our economy."
Australian Associated Press
