After ITV’s Reform investigation: what Hounslow residents should expect from their councillors

ITV Exposure’s Undercover: A Year in Reform, broadcast on 18 October 2026, has brought national scrutiny to councillors serving our borough. For Isleworth and Osterley, the local issue is confidence in how elected representatives use their position and explain their intentions to voters.

ITV’s published investigation identifies David Kerr and Adam Parkins, both Reform UK councillors for Feltham North. In its 14 October report, ITV described discussions about making the party acceptable to voters before gaining power. Parkins was recorded suggesting that measures people might find uncomfortable could be carried out without announcing them. Such remarks raise an immediate question about the openness on which an informed vote depends.

In subsequent reporting, ITV said Parkins discussed personally executing grooming-gang perpetrators and Kerr spoke of shooting thousands of perpetrators. ITV also reported Parkins’s response: he disputed a generalised reference to Pakistani people, said his comments concerned child rape gangs and supported the toughest sentences under British law. ITV said Kerr had not responded to its request for comment.

A 19 October report by Local Democracy Reporter Philip James Lynch in MyLondon also identified Conrad Brown, Reform UK councillor for Hanworth Village. It described remarks about owning slaves and noted that Brown explicitly said in the recording that slavery was wrong. Brown told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he was attempting a Ricky Gervais comedy reference, disputed the filming’s context and stated that he did not condone slavery. His explanation belongs alongside the reported remarks.

Reform told ITV that it had improved its vetting, rejected racism and begun investigations where members had behaved inappropriately. It said due process was required before commenting on individual investigations. Hounslow’s councillor register continued to list Kerr, Parkins and Brown as Reform UK members when checked on 20 October. A council listing does not establish the outcome of a party investigation.

Local political reaction has crossed party lines. The Local Democracy Reporting Service’s report, published by ChiswickW4 on 16 October, recorded condemnation from Labour, Conservative, Green and Liberal Democrat representatives. Isleworth Liberal Democrat councillor Roger Crouch questioned what constituents could understand about their councillors’ real beliefs. These are the reactions of political representatives; they do not measure the views of Hounslow residents as a whole.

TW7.info’s view is that residents are entitled to clear campaigning, sound judgement and equal treatment. Discussion of concealing intentions deserves an answer from anyone seeking public office. Violent rhetoric also warrants scrutiny of judgement, whatever explanation is offered afterwards. Protecting children requires effective safeguarding, support for victims and accountable action through the justice system.

The council’s balance makes scrutiny particularly significant. Labour and Labour and Co-operative councillors together hold 31 of the 62 seats, while Reform holds eight. Labour continues to lead the administration without an overall party majority. This existing political balance is separate from the documentary controversy. It gives decisions about policy, committee work and cooperation between groups practical importance for the whole borough.

None of the three councillors represents Isleworth, Osterley & Spring Grove or Syon & Brentford Lock. In May, Isleworth elected Sue Sampson and Salman Shaheen for Labour and Roger Crouch for the Liberal Democrats. Osterley & Spring Grove elected Labour’s Tony Louki, Unsa Chaudri and Ranjit Gill. Syon & Brentford Lock, which includes parts of TW7 and TW8, elected Labour’s Dan Bowring and Katherine Dunne, alongside Theo Dennison of Brentford & Isleworth Independent. TW7 also overlaps Hounslow East, which elected Labour’s Paul Baker and Daanish Saeed, and Hounslow South, which elected Labour’s Tom Bruce, Scott Hill and Karen Smith. None of the three Reform councillors represents either of those wards. Councillors nevertheless vote on borough-wide matters, so residents across TW7 have a legitimate interest in the standards of the wider chamber.

The programme cannot tell us what every Reform councillor or voter believes, nor establish its eventual electoral effect. Residents may reach different conclusions after considering the reporting and the responses. Every political group should face the same continuing tests: explain what it intends to do, answer reasonable questions, represent the whole community and make its decisions open to challenge. That is the local accountability this story calls for.