Nigel Farage claimed Reform were the victims of an establishment attack today after a string of its councillors and candidates were caught making violent, racist and sexist remarks by an undercover investigation.

The party leader broke cover today after three councillors left the party in the wake of ITV broadcasting covert recordings of them expressing offensive views.

They included disparaging comments about ethnic minorities, incest and other sexual jokes about female Reform colleagues and suggesting the King should be beheaded for being a 'secret Muslim'.

Speaking on a visit to Chelmsford in Essex, Mr Farage, who has spoken of trying to professionalise his party, said 'you can't vet people for what they say in the future'.

He suggested broadcasters should look into other parties before adding: 'It's just that you never will see an expensive investigation like that into the other parties because the establishment frankly want us out of the picture.'

He continued: 'We deal appropriately always with people saying and doing bad things, no question about that.

'We vet much more heavily than the other parties, but you can't vet against what somebody might say in the future, especially if they're provoked in conversation.'

In one clip, a councillor told undercover reporters the West Midlands area he was canvassing was 'infested' with Asian families, called them 'absolute parasites' and said they should be deported.

Cllr Alan Feeney, appointed deputy mayor of Solihull Borough Council in May, said: 'I'd be saying no more than 1 per cent of British population can be non-white... like literally drag them out of their homes, stick them on planes and f*** them off to Pakistan.

'I mean you're getting to a point where you ban Muslims from standing from public office.'

He has now 'mutually agreed' to resign from Reform UK, citing 'personal reasons', and will sit as an independent.

A Reform councillor in the same area used racist terms as well as making sexual comments about women standing for the party.

Cllr Chris Whelan said of a female Reform candidate: 'I'd have been sniffing that seat as soon as she got up.'

Cllr Whelan said following the investigation he had resigned from Reform 'on personal and health grounds'.

And Cllr Dean Miller, elected to Bromley Council in May, told an undercover reporter while leafleting voters in the Makerfield by-election: 'Apparently King Charles is a f****** Muslim... cut the c***'s head off.'

He also said that migrants crossing the Channel 'have come to rape and pillage and f****** kill us', adding that 'we've been ethnically cleansed out of London', and described black children vandalising shops as 'animals'.

Cllr Miller told ITV he is disabled and was heavily medicated at the time, and has resigned from Reform. 

Cllr Raymond Dunning, elected to Tameside council in May, complained his colleagues were being 'schmoozed' by Labour councillors and independents, saying: 'They should be shot against the wall.' 

He described himself as 'so far-Right, it's unbelievable'. He did not respond to ITV's request for comment and remains in Reform.

Last night Reform accused ITV Exposure of 'extreme methods of deception' but added: 'In some cases, there have been suspensions and due process must be followed.'

Deputy leader Richard Tice claimed that one of the Reform figures caught up in the investigation was a 'Tory plant' who was 'deliberately saying some things to make us look bad'.

Asked by reporters about the investigation during a visit to the North West, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: 'We've allowed a poison into our politics in recent years, and it's time to draw a line under it.

'In fact, I praised the Leader of the Opposition (Kemi Badenoch) in the House of Commons yesterday afternoon, who herself drew a line at her party conference between her party and that type of politics, and we all need to call it out more.

'I'm pleased ITV has done this.

'There is no place for any form of racism, anti-Semitism, discrimination in British politics, and we all should be relentless in repeating that and taking the firmest possible action.

'And I hope the Reform Party will take immediate and firm action against those who've been revealed to be making these abhorrent comments.'