Neville Watson left Reform UK this month after what he described as “harmful” conversations around migration, reports Finn Logue

The former chair of Reform UK’s Enfield branch has left the party after criticising the political group’s “negative rhetoric”.

Neville Watson – a former parliamentary candidate in Enfield who had been Reform UK’s only black chair – left the party this month after what he described as “harmful” conversations around migration.

Watson stood as a parliamentary candidate for the UK Independence Party (Ukip) in Edmonton as well as the London Assembly, before leaving the party. He then stood as Reform UK’s candidate in the Edmonton and Winchmore Hill constituency in the 2024 General Election and again in the Jubilee ward by-election for Enfield Council last November.

Speaking to the Dispatch, Watson said he joined Ukip originally to “campaign hard” for the UK to leave the European Union. He said he thought Nigel Farage was a charismatic leader with the country’s best interests at heart. He added that Reform UK – currently led by Farage – offered a “breath of fresh air” for those disillusioned with the main two parties.

However, Watson made headlines in The Guardian last week after commenting on Reform’s approach to migration.

Explaining his feelings further, Watson told the Dispatch: “There is some negative rhetoric and that is why I moved away from Reform. There was a certain language being used that I was getting uncomfortable with.

“It starts to sound like they are attacking one group of people who are immigrants. We’re not talking about immigrants who are white from Ukraine, we are talking about immigrants who are dark skinned.”

He said that Reform UK’s principle anti-immigration focus carries a certain “smell” and felt it was incompatible with his Christian “love thy neighbour” approach to politics.

Watson claims he is “very pro-immigration, as long as it’s controlled” and added that he thought Britain’s coastal towns were suffering and that immigration could “breathe new life into these towns”.

He added: “There’s a perception that we’re overrun, but we do have space. I’m a product of immigration and it would be very hypocritical to support this.”

Watson, born in Hackney, is the son of Windrush-generation Jamaican immigrants, and previously wrote to Reform party chair Zia Yusuf to campaign for reparations to be paid to Afro-Caribbeans, after Yusuf made negative comments about Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy for talking about the slave trade.

Writing in Reform UK’s magazine The New Reformer he said it was on Reform to “strengthen black voices” and “push back” on the marginalisation of ethnic minorities.

Watson made it clear that he had not personally experienced any racism in the party himself, but was “alarmed” by the rising tide of anti-migration rhetoric, both from the party and outside. He said that politicians such as Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick were “stoking a fire”.

The former Reform UK general election candidate is now set to defect to the Christian People’s Alliance, a minor Christian right party. Watson plans to stand again locally in Enfield and work with the party to bring Christian values to the area, with an overall enforcement of positivity in the party’s politics.

He added that he didn’t want to be “bound too rigidly” to build a movement “from the bottom up”.

Watson’s professional background includes working in social enterprise, youth work and special educational needs, before entering politics.

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