When Reform's letters to postal voters in Portsmouth were ready to go out, two undercover ITV reporters were personally responsible for almost two hundred of them in the ward of Drayton and Farlington. Reform lost Drayton and Farlington by 24 votes. The same two men were responsible for delivering leaflets to half the ward of Baffins. Reform lost Baffins by 85 votes. These were men whose purpose was to infiltrate Reform UK and damage it. In two wards decided by a few dozen votes, we believe there are reasonable grounds to conclude that ITV altered the result of British elections. There is no precedent for this. It is certainly not journalism. We believe it to be criminal. We will hold ITV and its activists to account.

I want to tell you about one of the people ITV psychologically damaged, who does not appear in any documentary. He is a Reform member in Portsmouth. He served as a Royal Marine in Afghanistan and Iraq, with distinction. One of ITV's undercover reporters told him they shared the same military background. That was a lie. The Marine, believing him, took him for a drink. They spent hours talking about their 'shared' service. He shared deeply personal stories from the front line. He thought he was talking to a friend who had been through the same things. He has since learned that the man across the table was an actor with a hidden camera, sent by a television company to damage the party he volunteers for. Violated. That's the word he used, and I'm not going to soften it. A man who put his life on the line for this country had his most private memories extracted by deception for a TV programme. ITV should be ashamed.