LBC callers berate Reform's Laila Cunningham after undercover sting

Is Reform UK getting singled out unfairly here? And we've got Martin in Doncaster. Hi, Martin. Hiya, Leila, and well done for coming on, because it might not be an easy show tonight. No, I think you're playing a big thing, Leila, and thank God we've got a press-up showing what reform are about. I mean, it's not just this case. I mean, look at Mayfield. The vile, disgusting comments from that candidate in Mayfield, and then you've got Zia Youssef. You know what I mean, about that Labour MP. You see what's happening. That's what your party's about. It's terrible, and it needs to be... Not all of them, not all of them. You know what I mean? You've got the media. It's no good complaining about the media. You've got two news channels on your side, that one that Martin Doherty's on and the Jeremy Kyle news channel. You know what I mean? It's just basically promoting reform, propaganda day in, day out. Migrants this, migrants that. You know what I mean? Martin, do you think when we talk migrant this, migrant that, people do have a genuine concern about migration or illegal migration, should they not have a voice? Is that an unfair complaint? No, it isn't an unfair complaint, Leila, because I do have complaints about it. There is too many people coming over in small boats. I've been the MP and I've mentioned this, You know what I mean? And he's a Labour MP. And it's not, you know what I mean? I'm not saying that because I support Labour. You know what I mean? Labour needs to get on top of it. Martin, do you think the press are unfairly scrutinising reform? No, no, I don't. Our next caller is Victoria from Stansted. Victoria, you don't agree with me, do you? Hi, Leila. Good evening. Good evening. I think you've got the balls to try and make a career out of taking this position. But your question is, are they being disproportionately or unfairly scrutinised? And the answer, and you know, is no. They warrant additional scrutiny. And I'm going to list you some reasons why. Lee Anderson, Danny Kruger, Robert Jenrick, Andrew Rossendale, Suella Braverman, Dean Miller, Nathan Gill, Farage's own dragging us into American politics, Farage's own undercover selling... How has he dragged us into American politics, Victoria? He's dragged us into American politics by being too close to Trump over too many years, betting on the price of oil. Victoria, how has he bet on the price of oil? And do you not think we should have a close relationship with the United States? The relationship we should have with the United States should be protectionist of our own values. Yes, it should be cooperative and mutually respected, you know, respecting each other. Should our close relationship with the United States be contingent on who the president is? Or should it be to maintain those relationships? You're taking this conversation into an argument that's different from the question you ask. With all due respect, Victoria, you've accused Nigel Farage of somehow taking us into American... Dragging us. And I'm just trying to understand what you mean by that. You don't push the personal agenda. There is no personal agenda. Nigel Farage believes... Oh, come on. Do you believe America... You've been so busy prosecuting. Where have you been? It's like you've been dropped from another planet and you've not read and seen and heard everything the rest of us have. Victoria, do you think America is an ally or an enemy? Increasingly an enemy because... What has it done to harm the United Kingdom? Well, I would initially say that when they make it increasingly impossible for us to buy energy and oil on the wholesale market, they are affecting our economy. I think that Trump's political decisions has a day-to-day impact on what we pay for energy so we can run our businesses at the pump. And do you think the solution to that is to have closer relationships to the USA? What benefit is there to not having close relationships to the USA? once again you're we don't have the energy capability or the financial or the defense capabilities to not be allied with the united states you're taking us into an argument that you think you can win yes of course we should have uh close ties with america because we share many values but the values we shared for 200 years um have been totally distorted and farage uses the closeness for his own gains. Reform is a limited company. What's the own gain? What's his own gain? Well, I distinctly remember, Leila, that him and his close circle knew about the price of oil per barrel going up six hours before it did. I don't know whether you've seen that. I can't comment on that. Well, after this call, I'll follow up. I'm sure your producers can find it in a couple of seconds. Are you not aware of that then? No, I'm not aware of that. Will you research it? You've also mentioned colleagues in the list of why we should be scrutinised more. What do you mean by that? You just listed the names. You didn't list a reason. OK, so Nathan Gill is in prison. Yeah, and Nathan Gill, and rightly so, Nathan Gill was a traitor to this country. So Leila, when a reform member, when a reform elect is put in prison, he wasn't elected under reform but yeah what was his position he was he was he was leader of wales when we weren't polling much when we were a small party and just just you know by the very you think that's unimportant no i think it's very important i think he was a traitor to this country and it wasn't a journalist that uncovered him the reason i raise nathan gill's name and what he did is because the question you've asked is why is reform under more scrutiny? Because Russia is one of our biggest threats. So if reform are doing everything they can and taking money off crypto billionaires to make expensive signs that they put in... But what's wrong? Those crypto billionaires are legitimate legal donors. Are you saying there's a criminal activity there? Because there isn't. Well, I believe that there's a threshold as to what somebody can donate. Well, let me put it to you. A few years ago, Lord Sainsbury... Are you justifying the £5 million he took there? We're not talking... That was a personal gift and the parliamentary standards are still... Who's ever accepted a £5 million personal gift before in the run-up to their leadership campaign? Who's ever done that? Well, it was a personal gift. Now, you know the scrutiny and you know... So you're happy with... Would you have taken £5 million, Chris? If I felt that my life was in danger and I did not have the security to protect myself and to protect my family, I would. Yes, because my safety and my family's safety comes above everything else. And if I had a friend that was kind enough to offer that, of course, I would take it. Show me one person that wouldn't. Who would want to endanger their lives? And there's nothing illegal about it. We are talking about if you are going to go undercover in a political party, then do you not think that if you're going to compare like for like, they should do that to other parties? where have you ever seen an undercover journalist infiltrate another party for a whole year have you seen that before well i can't remember off the top of my head if you gave me 30 seconds they're absolutely right to do that okay well thank you victoria you think they're right and you don't agree with me and that's a great call and listen i want people to call and not agree with me i don't mind a bit of disagreement it's why i'm here tonight um but do you agree uh with Victoria, do you have you do you remember a time when journalists went undercover in a political party our next caller is Martin from Rotherhithe in southeast London hello Martin evening Leila how are you fine thank you how are you yeah not too bad um well done for keeping your cool there with that last call i mean she was quite clearly a Labour activist i mean you can always tell yeah it was the full house with a bingo set with what she was coming out with there so So well done. But what we're seeing now was all predicted by Dominic Cummings about a year ago. You were going to see an all out attempt by parts of the media, not all, but parts of the media and certain people in the media to do everything they could to try to destroy reform. And what's interesting is it's not just on the left. I mean, yes, we've got this current one with ITV. We've had Sky News recently doing a big hit piece on Durham County Council. We had the Channel 4 one as well. And you know that hit piece on Durham County Council? She only spoke to the disgruntled councillors. Yeah, I saw that as well. And I was on her show, and I'm like, if you're really going to judge a council, do you not think you should speak to the residents and ask them what they view? And I think that's the problem. You have journalists just speaking to journalists and politicians, so they don't speak for the people or to the people. I agree. And this latest one, all of those councillors that were filmed saying those terrible things, yeah just get shot of them yeah they don't represent most of the party but what's true what's really important here is it's not just on the left where reform are being attacked if you look yeah maybe this time last year there were a lot of journalists on the right there are certain newspapers on the right that were quite friendly to reform even though they're historically conservatives but that's all started changing you're even seeing certain outlets like yeah reform don't have a lot of friends in the media and the few that they do have like you know GB News or talk radio even they in recent months have started turning against reform it's coming from both angles now and yeah I agree with you that we don't have many friends in the press and I welcome scrutiny in fact it's important that we're scrutinized because it it holds us to a high standard but I do think that it's the journalist's duty to hold every party to the similar standard i agree and and i don't feel they are and you i've got an example if you remember when the Iran war started a few months back yeah i remember going on the BBC news website and you would have thought that the Iran war would have been their number one news story at the time instead it was a story about a reform councillor that you'd never heard of from somewhere who had said something terrible that was their number one news story in the middle of the Iran war and there with some other big global stories at the time. And I can remember at that time reading this thinking, no other political party with a councillor that you've not heard of who's made some terrible comments, that would not be your main story if it was in the Greens, Labour, the Tories or anybody else. And Martin, before we won so many council elections across the country, I never saw so much scrutiny by the mainstream media on councils. No, you never used to see anything. Never used to see on councils, zero. Thank you very much, Martin. Our next caller is Adele, who's a first-time caller from Ulverston in Cumbria hi Adele hello Leila lovely to speak to you lovely to speak to you too what it is i'm asked for a little bit of relationship advice oh okay i am in a i'm i'm in a relationship with a man who votes for reform okay i am a liberal woman okay i have issues with what i've seen in this um undercover sting that's happened over this last week so do right yeah and we have had some arguments he he thinks that reform is not a racist party i am obviously disagreeing with him but what that's not really what it is that interests me it's more than misogyny and i'm especially the quote from sarah poaching where she said that reform has a male issue and as somebody who you know i'm in a relationship and he cares about women i just wanted to ask you how many isolated incidents of misogyny within the reform party do you think can be allowed before it becomes a culture i mean we've only heard from sarah and that perhaps is a personal experience i mean they've made me candidate for london mayor which is the biggest mandate in europe they've given me a platform and i think you're fabulous i disagree with you politically but i think you're wonderful i thank you i think you're a really great representative for the party and i follow you on social media you know and i think you know i'm I'm not a tribal person I'll never dismiss what the work you do and everything like that I am interested of you as a woman inside the party how much of this can you let go before you speak out and say what was said on those investigations was wrong but I have said it's wrong it was terrible what is reform going to do about it rather than rather than deflect and say why don't they investigate other parties Why don't you come out strongly in favour of the women in your party, actually own what has happened instead of this deflection? I would have more respect for you as a woman if you could do that. But we have very strong women in the party. You know, we welcome strong women. Nigel is very respectful of women and women's opinions. But you also have deeply misogynistic men in your party and I do think that you are creating a misogynistic culture. How do you know that? Because I spend a lot of time on social media, I read posts by reform supporters, I read posts by people who say vote for reform, and then call Bridget Philipson a DEI hire, just purely on the fact that she's a woman. You cannot possibly say that that's acceptable. Didn't Bridget Philipson say that one of the Conservative ministers was a DEI hire? But you're deflecting again. I'm talking about reform. I don't want to do what about her. what i'm saying is you're holding us to a higher standard which is the premise of my conversation of course there are bad apples there are bad apples in every organization but what i'm saying is don't tarnish a whole party don't tarnish literally hundreds of thousands of people by a few comments you see on social media we we have a local councillor here called hazel edwards she's a fantastic councillor she's a reform councillor she does great work for a community she's very outspoken she she gets the job done she also has some horrific social media posts i can i can separate that line between the work she does and the things she says the example that you make as a woman within reform i do think you need to be stronger on it Adele, I would if I felt it was misogynistic a hundred percent I would stand up for it you know I stand up for what I believe in but I don't believe that Reform is misogynistic I haven't seen it but it's a great call Adele it's been really interesting hearing your thoughts actually and it's interesting the difference of opinions within a marriage. Carl from Manchester. Hi Carl Hiya. I don't know how you put up with these people but then again if you want to get into power you've got to do what Donald Trump did in America I've studied Trump over the years and it was obvious to me when he started out he was going to win the election. He's just a total genius. Now as long as Farage keeps his cool he wins the election because I can tell you on behalf of most football fans in the country 88% of football fans the real football fans not the idiots who watched football in the last year or two they're all big reform fans and when it comes to the election ITV, Channel 4 and all the other idiot stations going to get a shot because they don't even see it coming down the road that reform are going to win it's quite amusing really Well, I think I think they do see it, that Reform is going to win. And that's why they're coming after us. Great call from from Carl. Thanks for your call. And maybe you know what, maybe I'll read some text messages. Well, I got a nice one saying, well done, Leila, you're doing a great job of standing up to all the Reform haters. Keep up the good work. And then and then another one is shame and LBC for giving a platform to your poison. Well, there you go. We've got two sides. And next is Patel from Pinner. Hi, Patel. How are you? Yeah, I'm OK. Not bad. Leila, the reason why I'm calling is because I'm a little bit dismayed about the arguments put against you. I just feel as though there's a degree of resentment and unfairly levelled against reform. And I'm not a reform supporter. I do support a lot of the things reform stands for, but not everything. and i feel as though people are calling up venting anger and trying to tarnish you with some of the some of the you know the odd things that they've seen here and there which doesn't really put together a cogent argument so i just feel as though you've had a couple of callers recording which i've listened to i feel a bit annoyed about that and and i just wanted to say that one thing i will say and that is um reform are attracting um some uh unfortunate publicity i think there are some bad apples in your in your party for sure and we're dealing with that then you should deal with that we are crack down that pretty hard there really is a zero tolerance approach and anyone who's caught saying that kind of abhorrent language has gone but as nigel said it's difficult to vet people for what they say in the future we can only vet them for what they said in the past thank you very much great call hi asha hello hi leila hi hi i'm calling for the first time um so to answer your question with regards to whether we believe whether I believe reform is being held to a higher standard and you know it's almost coming off like a witch hunt I do believe there's a small element of that just because of you know the publicity that they're getting right but that's not to say that it's not warranted I do believe that the same standards should be held across all parties and maybe a penalty should be introduced for when people do get caught out and are caught saying vile things like this because people are going to be, you're going to be under the spotlight whether you're in Conservative Party reform. It's just that reform are just being, you know, they're just under the spotlight at the minute. It's just a bigger spotlight, yeah. Of course, right? But that being said, I'm calling. And you're a first-time caller. Thanks for calling. No, that's okay. I'm calling as a black woman, right? Usually, I've grown up in North London. I've grown up down... Where in North London? So I grew up here on Copenhagen Street, so Caledonian Road, so Islington. Okay. And in the 80s, there was a lot of racism. So I witnessed that firsthand and whatnot. So as you grow up, you learn that it's a lot of ignorance. So you learn to just, it's background noise. And as an adult, you just get on with it and you just ignore it. But when I heard the comments that were made through the Reform Party over the last few days, especially regarding the children, that's when I was like, oh, no, not acceptable. You can't. I've got two black girls. My children are black. Right. Actually, one's mixed race and the other's black. But you cannot talk about the children. Children are off limits. You cannot go around. in 2024... Adults are off-limits. Racism in any form. 100%. But you know what? I was even more offended because I'm an adult. I can take it. But imagine if my kids are watching the news and they're hearing, because it's not filtered, by the way, that all black children are considered animals. Are you out of your mind? Outrageous. I was furious too. I was furious too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. I understand that you're furious. I mean, listen, As a Muslim, sometimes I get labelled as a terrorist, as an Islamist. And it makes me furious, you know, furious. But and I'll say this, ISIS, it does not represent me. It does not represent the party. It does not represent the views of Nigel. But sadly, we can't control everyone who joins our political party. And some racists, listen, I'll put it this, some racists mistake perhaps our strong immigration policies for an invitation to express their prejudices. They're wrong, because supporting border control doesn't give anyone permission to be racist. No, absolutely not. But the danger is, is allowing a small number of those racists to define an entire movement. And that's what I'm pushing back on. I totally get it. I totally get that point. But there's got to be a reason for it, because we're now seeing, it's almost given, like, I don't want to say that reform has given the green light for all the racists to come out of the closet, because at one point it was just like, it was a little bit quiet. and then there just seems it's just exploded because it's more noticeable and i do believe that the media has a big part to play in that as well i'm sorry to say media and politics go hand in hand right so you can't say that it's not benefit one is not benefiting the other and it seems to flip-flop at the end of the day in my opinion so like you said earlier with regards to at one point i think someone said that at one point reform was you know let's just say what's the term you know, the flavour of the month so to speak, and then all of a sudden it's just like okay, well now you're not so popular and we can see it, you can see it and some would say it's like a witch hunt, but then at the same time it could be working in their favour because some people like an underdog, so we don't know which way it's coming from, it's a lot of a lot of bamboozling that's going on it's politics isn't it? Yeah it is it's terrible, politics has never been so dirty, this is my opinion and the narrative the narrative is is sometimes awful i mean it's awful and i think there's a difference between opposing immigration illegal immigration and mass migration to the extent that we've had and disliking immigrants you know i'm the daughter of immigrants and there is no way i would never ever be part of any party that was racist you know i grew up in with with people from from all backgrounds and that that's that's the party i want to represent and the party we represent is it doesn't matter the color of your skin your religion where you were born if you come to this country and you love it and and you want to join it then you're one of us and um that message has to be stronger i think that yeah definitely that message has to be stronger because at the moment the message and the impression that people are getting off from the Reform Party is not a good one. But all I ask, Asha, is don't let a few bad people taint all of us. That's all. I understand. Please know that that is not the views of the party. I would hope not. Of course not. Of course not. Never. Never. That's not what the party represents. That's not what our country represents. Great call. Thank you very much. I'm going to read a WhatsApp from Moose. He says, I'm a Reform supporter. You've mentioned you're a Muslim, so I assume that your family back home are Muslim. What is your take for saying they're going to ban face coverings? Well, my take is that face coverings has nothing to do with Islam. You know, there's nothing that says you must cover your face. Absolutely not. And it is a very radical take on a traditional form of Islam that doesn't really belong in this country. I don't believe that an open society should have women covering their face. That's how I feel about it. and I'm happy to ban face coverings. You know, I've stood, it's, number one, it's conducive to crime because when you hide someone's identity, it's very difficult to prove that they committed that crime if you can't identify their face. But on a more fundamental level, it just doesn't match British values in any way. Our next caller is Lee from Bromley. Hi, Lee. Hi, Leila. How are you? How are you? Go on. I'm the first time speaking to you. Oh, wow. I'm honoured. um i just wanted to say um i think uh the other parties are frightened of reform why do you think because well because i think they've hidden so much from the public that it's all going to come out in the wash yeah yeah yeah well you could also say because it's them or us right well that's how it's getting yeah that maybe there's no place for a third party and and and yeah and as for racism them they just that's the first word out of their mouth it's the only thing that you know they don't attack our policies and and they just label us things that are that are untrue and there has been a two-party consensus in this a long time for as far back as i can remember and you can imagine that the powers that be whoever they are don't want don't want to shake don't want to lose that of course and they'll do whatever they can to stop it from happening and and all i ask is that journalists of course scrutinise us and if it, you know, but I think But honestly, can you call them journalists when they're doing stuff like that? Well, I mean, I think they owe it to to the public to present all sides of the story. Thank you very much, Lee, that's a great call I've been shown a WhatsApp message from Mackie. Hi Leila, you are too good for reform, you are educated, fair and have charisma, there is nothing wrong with supporting border control, unfortunately the reform movement is packed full of people with far less character than you, including racists and thugs, you are too good to be in that awful party It's not true, Mackie I have met the most remarkable people and I've campaigned up and down the country and I have met, I've met people that are, that have blown me away actually. People that have been, that are fighting, fighting the state actually some of them, fighting the overreach of the state, fighting for their rights, fighting for their community and they've just felt that they've been fighting alone without the state. And I can't agree with your message. Thank you for your compliments to me. But the people I've met from reform have blown me away in their conviction, their kindness and their dedication to this country. And I'm going to take one last call. And it's Gavin from Liverpool. Hi, Gavin. You're right. I'm actually from up in Carlisle. But yeah. So you're not the only one. Right. Momentum in 2019, BBC Panorama did a full infiltration of Momentum and had an undercover agent working for months and months and then released a panorama against us. And that's the British broadcaster, the state-owned broadcaster, yeah? Right? So you're not the only one. The Labour Party has had this over and over and over for decades upon decades. Like in the 70s, Wilson had MI5. 70s? We're talking about now. People who watched it in the 70s might not be alive now. to... 2024 then. When has it happened now? 2024. Josh Simmons, Labour, the Labour Together scandal, yeah, that was a sting operation. There's been so many... I didn't see a documentary. Was there an undercover documentary on that? I may have missed it. Al Jazeera, undercover documentary that was on Al Jazeera The Al Jazeera three-part documentary into the Labour Party. This has gone on for decades. Did any British journalist do a sting operation and do a video? BBC Panorama was a set of British journalists, yeah, the British broadcasters. Like, look, it's alright, it's normal. But, like, trying to make out that this is not normal is the problem.