Reform UK MP Pochin faces calls for action over racist ad remarks

Sarah Pochin, the Reform UK member of parliament for Runcorn and Helsby, said on a Saturday phone-in that "it drives me mad when I see adverts full of Black people, full of Asian people," prompting widespread condemnation from political leaders and calls for her party to take disciplinary action. Pochin later apologised, saying her remarks were poorly phrased and that she had been seeking to criticise what she described as an overemphasis on diversity in advertising.

Pochin, who won her seat in May by six votes, made the comments while responding to a caller who complained about the demographic makeup of television adverts. She told the programme that she believed many adverts no longer represented "your average white person, average white family," and attributed the change to what she characterised as a cultural shift in the advertising industry. In a subsequent statement she said, "My comments on a phone-in earlier today were phrased poorly and I unreservedly apologise for any offence caused, which was not my intention," adding that her intended point concerned balance and fairness and that some agencies had gone "DEI mad."

Opposition politicians and ministers described the...