Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and Lee Anderson (Image: Getty)
Nigel Farage has warned most of the racism in British politics is “in the Labour Party”.
The Reform UK leader insisted he will introduce tough new vetting procedures to ensure racist, homophobic or misogynistic candidates cannot stand for the party.
And he turned his fury on the Labour Party, saying they had failed to tackle racism within their own ranks.
Mr Farage was one of four Reform candidates to win, alongside former Tory Lee Anderson in Ashfield, former Southampton FC chairman Rupert Lowe in Great Yarmouth and former party leader Richard Tice in Boston and Skegness.
The Reform UK leader also claimed the party could be on the brink of a historic fifth victory - South Basildon and East Thurrock. The party also came second in a staggering 98 seats, as they took 14 percent of the votes cast.
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Nigel Farage held a press conference after Reform UK's historic performance (Image: Getty)
Mr Farage said Reform UK's focus will be on going "after Labour votes", with the new MP for Clacton telling a London press conference: "Old Labour was very, very patriotic. It believed in the country. It believed in its people. New Labour far less so.
"And the journey that Lee Anderson has been on is a journey that at least a couple of million people have been on, and it'll be many, many more by the time we're finished, because no doubt, our priority now is to go after Labour votes. That is what we're going to be doing.”
Asked at a press conference how he would vet Reform candidates properly going forward, including for racism, he said: "Very easy. You go back through their social media records. You obviously do police checks and things like that. No, it's not difficult to do it and the message has to be clear and simple.
"We don't want anyone like that involved with us. Indeed I mean the racism problem in the Labour Party was enormous, but to Keir Starmer's credit, actually, he did quite a lot by getting rid of Jeremy Corbyn, who ironically has been re-elected.
"There's an awful lot we can do. There is plenty of racism in British politics. It's mostly in the Labour Party."
Express.co.uk has contacted the Labour Party for comment.
Nigel Farage was interrupted by protesters (Image: Getty)
The Brexit champion also said he is "launching criminal legal action" against Colin Bloom of Vetting.Com as he vowed to "professionalise" Reform UK.
Facing a question about the racism row engulfing the party, its leader again blamed the firm it contracted to vet candidates.
He also said: "I made it clear that Ukip would be a non-racist, non-sectarian party, and in the end it was.
"I will jolly well make sure, starting today, that we do not want people with desperately unpleasant views. We will not tolerate people with these views. They will be gone.
"And we'll have the funding after this, we'll have the support coming in to be able to absolutely professionalise the party. This will never happen again."
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Graph shows huge gulf between Reform’s millions of votes and seats it won [LATEST]
Nigel Farage erupts over number of seats Reform UK should have won [COMMENTS]
New map shows the 136 seats where Reform beat the Tories [MAP]
Farage erupts over number of seats Reform UK should have won
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Introducing Reform's Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, Mr Farage said: "Lee Anderson took a brave decision. He decided to join Reform UK. He was much mocked and derided by colleagues who had similar political opinions to him but didn't have the guts to do it. They've all lost their seats overnight."
Reform UK focused its resources on a handful of key seats, but it now hopes its success across the country, with significant clusters of support in every corner of England, will be a springboard for further success in 2029.
Analysis by the Daily Express shows Reform had particular success in the North East, in Merseyside and Lancashire, South Wales, south Essex, Lincolnshire and parts of Yorkshire and the Humber.
Tory MPs and candidates admitted Reform UK were successful because many voters had lost faith in the Conservatives’ record on immigration.
Polling expert Sir John Curtice said Reform had benefited from a significant fall in the Conservative vote in seats the party had previously held, as well as advancing most in areas where people voted Leave in the 2016 referendum.
In all four seats won by Reform, more than 70 percent of people voted for Brexit.
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In an early sign of Reform's success in winning over former Tory voters, the first two results of the night in north-east England - in Blyth and Ashington and in Houghton and Sunderland South - saw the party beat the Conservatives by more than 4,000 votes.
The pattern was repeated in a number of other seats, as the Tory vote share plummeted.
Chris Hopkins, Savanta’s Political Research Director, said: “The next hurdle they face is more of a tactical one – it’s to what extent they become an arm of the Conservative Party, or to what extent they can become a bigger political force in their own right.
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“All the noises coming from their leadership is the latter, and it’s apparent that Labour MPs defending seats where Reform are second will have a very different set of concerns to Labour MPs with independent / Gaza-specific threats.
“This makes Reform dangerous to both the Tories, as we’ve seen at this election, and to Labour, as we saw with UKIP in 2015.”
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