Reform Councillor Says Slavery Comment was from Comedy Sketch
Two of featured in ITV investigation respond after broadcast
Left to right: Cllr Conrad Brown, Cllr David Kerr, Cllr Adam Parkins
October 20, 2026
A Hounslow Reform councillor featured in an ITV investigation saying he’d “love to have some slaves” claims that the comment was based on a Ricky Gervais sketch.
Cllr Conrad Brown is one of three Hounslow Reform councillors featured in the undercover ITV investigation. The Hanworth Village representative was secretly filmed during the Makerfield by-election, for which he was helping campaign, remarking that he has made some comments which would raise questions in vetting in private chat rooms.
He added: “I did once say that it’d be quite fun to have some slaves which doesn’t go down that well, I mean it would be. I think slavery is wrong but if I was allowed slaves I’d totally have some slaves.”
Speaking for the first time since the investigation aired on Sunday (October 18), Cllr Brown told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that even the undercover filming showed he does not condone slavery. He said: “ITV’s undercover reporter acted as an agent provocateur, spending many hours with us during which time he made many comments that in retrospect were clearly aimed to entrap us.
“After several hours of illicit filming the only footage they have of me is a flippant comment, emulating a comedy sketch made by Ricky Gervais.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I do not condone slavery which I make clear in the recording and which any honest viewer of the footage would conclude.”
Cllr Adam Parkins represents Feltham North and was filmed suggesting it was better for Reform candidates not to mention what they would really do if they were elected. He said: “The stuff that people feel uncomfortable with, don’t even announce it, just do it, just make the changes in the background.”
He added in the footage: “We just need to get elected, that’s all that f****** matters. There are enough people within our group that understand what needs to be done. We won’t necessarily say what we’re doing and maybe part of the point is not [to do so].”
ITV alleges that Cllr Parkins asked their undercover reporter if there is a “Pakistani problem” in his area. He told ITV he did not make a generalised comment about a “Pakistani problem”, and told the LDRS it was a question in response to the reporter.
He was also filmed telling the undercover reporter that if he was Prime Minister he would support “Sunday morning rose garden executions” for grooming gang perpetrators. He told the LDRS: “My comments referred strictly to those who participated in the child rape gangs.
“It is entirely false and misleading to report that it was in relation to any general ‘Pakistani problem’. It is Reform UK’s policy that those involved in the rape gangs should face the ‘toughest possible sentence under British law’. That is my view.
“The alleged ‘Pakistani problem’ phrase was a question asked in response to the reporter. Advocating the death penalty for men who systematically groomed and raped young girls over many years in towns and cities across our country is a perfectly legitimate opinion.”
Cllr David Kerr also represents Feltham North. He was filmed suggesting that he could not “discuss a tenable solution without being called a f****** Nazi”.
He also claimed that Reform would be much more hard-line once in power, and argues that the party is aiming not to alienate voters before an election.
He said: “We’re not f****** stupid enough to p*** off the entire like woke south, or centrist south of the country. You need to seem palatable to everyone, to get them, to get the majority.
“There’s certain things that need to be done to turn this country around, that the general public here, I think, would accept. But the south would never accept it and we still need their votes.”
Cllr Kerr has not responded to requests for comment by the LDRS.
Commenting on the ITV report, Cllr Shantanu Rajawat, the Labour Leader of Hounslow Council said: “The mask has slipped. On Sunday night, we saw the real face of Reform UK. There is no place for bigotry, racism or misogyny in our politics and there will never be in Hounslow.”
The Brentford West Councillor and Leader of the Hounslow Greens, Guy Lambert, told the LDRS he is “not at all surprised.” He added: “Reform tells us that they have powerful vetting, they are not racist and they are patriotic.
“All of that is nonsense. They are clearly racist, clearly lack any respect for honest democracy, only focused on winning power to carry out their hideously true policy of hatred…
“It makes no difference to me whether [the members featured in the ITV investigation] are expelled by the Reform party. They might discipline or exclude them but it is all a sham, and Reform will continue to seek power based on lies.”
Philip James Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter
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