Nigel Farage has described one of his MP’s comments as “ugly” and “wrong” after she said “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people”.
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: “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 complaining about the demographics of advertising by saying they were “absolutely right”.
She then added that “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people”.
Farage said he was “unhappy” with what his MP has done, but that the comments came in the context of “DEI madness”.
It came as Sir Keir Starmer described Ms Pochin’s comments as “shocking racism”.
Asked whether the comments from the MP were racist, the prime minister said: “It’s shocking racism, and it’s sort of thing that will tear our country apart, and it tells you everything about Reform.”
He said that Mr Farage has to face questions about it “because either he doesn’t consider it racist, which in my view is shocking in itself, or he does think it’s racist and he’s shown absolutely no leadership”.
Meanwhile, the shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the way that Ms Pochin had made her comments was “racist” and “it’s right she apologised”.
Speaking to LBC, he said: “She should absolutely not have said that. It was completely wrong.
“She has apologised. I think the way she put it was racist, she shouldn’t have said it and it’s right she’s apologised.”
Earlier on Monday, Labour wrote to Mr Farage asking him to “urgently clarify” whether he endorsed her comments and whether they were welcome in the party, while the Liberal Democrats have sought a censure motion in Parliament to formally rebuke Ms Pochin’s words.
Speaking to TalkTV on Saturday, when asked what she thought was wrong with her advertising comments, she explained: “It doesn’t reflect our society and I feel that your average white person, average white family is … not represented any more.”
