On a different day in the ITV broadcast, Feeney is joined by two other Reform candidates, Jamie Campbell and Chris Whelan, who discuss speculation of a mosque being built in the local area.
“There’s got to be a way of stopping them – like, go and buy some pork chops; we’ll bury it in the ground,” Campbell is heard saying in the film.
Whelan says “we’ll take pictures of it”, prompting Feeney to add: “I was gonna say, ‘Unfortunately, this is a pig cemetery, mate’.”
Discussing a female Reform candidate from Birmingham, Feeney is heard saying, “I didn’t know where to look”, before Whelan adds: “I’d have been sniffing that seat as soon as she got up.”
The BBC has tried to contact Feeney for a response. ITV has reported that on Monday evening he had “mutually agreed” to resign from Reform UK, citing “personal reasons” and would be continuing as an independent councillor.
ITV reported that Whelan, who did not respond to the broadcaster’s request for comment, would now be an independent councillor. The BBC has contacted him and Campbell for a response.
A Reform UK Solihull spokesman condemned Feeney and Wheelan’s “misogynistic and offensive comments” and confirmed they were no longer Reform councillors.
The spokesman said Campbell’s comment “was a joke in poor taste but with no malicious intent”, adding: “It’s something that he deeply regrets, and the party will not be taking any further action.”
Elsewhere in the film, Dean Miller, a councillor in the south London borough of Bromley, is shown campaigning for Reform in the Makerfield by-election.
“We’ve been ethnically cleansed out of London because you never used to get any blacks over in Bromley,” he tells an ITV undercover reporter. “And now, you know, Bromley’s like massive Nigerian communities there.”
Miller says he is “not racist”, before later adding: “The Muslim thing, that is going to be that thing that takes over everything and then everyone just has one religion. Because, apparently, King Charles is a [expletive] Muslim… I think that’s [expletive] traitorous.”
ITV reported that Miller would now sit as an independent councillor having resigned from Reform and had told them in a statement that he was heavily medicated due to a chronic pain condition when he made the comments.
The BBC has contacted him for comment.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Reform should take “immediate and firm action against those who’ve been revealed to be making these abhorrent comments”.
He added: “There is no place for any form of racism, antisemitism, discrimination in British politics, and we all should be relentless in repeating that and taking the firmest possible action.”
The Conservatives said: “Nigel Farage promised to make Reform ready for government. These sorry individuals are proof he has failed.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “This is chilling. I feel for anyone watching this tonight who is frightened to see such racism and hatred festering in their community.”
A Green Party spokesman said: “Vilifying migrants and Muslims is Reform’s main focus, and these racist comments reflect party policy.”
