Channel 4 News ‘Reform UK’ undercover investigation cleared by Ofcom

Ofcom dismisses complaints made about a Channel 4 News undercover investigation, which captured Reform UK volunteers expressing racist, Islamophobic and homophobic views.

In a statement published today the television regulator noted that they had ‘received over 270 complaints about Channel 4 News’ Undercover inside Reform’s campaign’ Ofcom added that the probe into the news feature had, given the election period, been ‘urgently assessed’ to check its due accuracy, due impartiality and offence rules under the Broadcasting Code.

Ofcom concluded that nothing Channel 4 News aired warrants any further investigation while Nigel Farage and Reform UK have twenty days to submit a fairness and privacy complaint to Ofcom. Farage earlier this week suggested the news item had been ‘a set up’ to attack the right-wing party. Farage added he believed the Reform UK canvasser, Andrew Parker, was an actor and had been deliberately ‘planted’ into the party to cause a damaging effect on the controversial party’s election campaign.

A spokesperson for Channel 4 News:

“Since this report aired, Channel 4 News has strongly stood up for its accurate, rigorous and duly impartial reporting, which speaks for itself. Ofcom’s decision underscores the integrity of Channel 4 News’s journalism and high editorial standards.

“The programme will continue to refute any claims that we – or the production company we worked with – knew or paid the Reform UK canvasser, Mr Andrew Parker. We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK’s campaign headquarters in Clacton, and he was filmed secretly via the undercover investigation.”

The decision was reported on Channel 4 News this evening, and can be seen below:

Ofcom has dismissed complaints made about a Channel 4 News undercover investigation, which captured Reform UK volunteers expressing racist, Islamophobic and homophobic views. pic.twitter.com/3YVOSBWLoR

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) July 3, 2024