Reform UK aides step down after funding allegations

Two senior Reform UK officials stepped down Friday after an undercover Channel 4 investigation alleged that figures in Nigel Farage’s party arranged for a foreign donor to pay for political polling, a potentially unlawful benefit under Britain’s political finance rules.

Reform UK denied wrongdoing and said it had been targeted in a hoax by climate activists posing as donors. The party said it would launch an internal investigation after the broadcast, which aired as Reform’s annual conference opened to the public.

The officials who stepped aside pending the inquiry are James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a longtime aide and close associate of Farage. Channel 4 reported that two senior Reform figures arranged for a U.S. company to pay more than £30,000, or about $40,000, for three opinion polls commissioned by the party. British law bans foreign donations to political parties.

The undercover work was carried out by Verbatim, an investigative group that Channel 4 said was founded by journalists from the Centre for Climate Reporting. Channel 4 said it verified the group’s findings, including covert footage of meetings. The undercover team posed as wealthy donors from the United States with British connections and said it spent a year speaking with senior Reform officials about possible donations, ending with a lunch attended by Farage.

Farage rejected the allegations in an interview with LBC radio. “The party has broken no laws. The party has not taken any dodgy money or anything like that whatsoever,” he said.

He said Jukes and Orr had “said things that shouldn’t have been said” in relation to donations purportedly originating in the United States, but said no such donation had been accepted. He described the two as having been “entrapped.” According to Al Jazeera, Farage also said, “entrapped conversations don’t look good, and that’s why we’ve [launched the party investigation].”

Orr disputed that the polling arrangement amounted to a donation to Reform. “There’s absolutely no way this could amount to a benefit or donation in kind at all,” he said in a video posted on X. “It wasn’t internal party polling. It wasn’t Reform UK’s poll. It was a public poll arranged by an independent person paying an independent pollster, and those polls were published immediately for the general public.”

The governing Labour Party wrote to London’s Metropolitan Police asking for an investigation into possible criminal offences. Labour said the documentary raised further concerns, including discussion of channelling a donation from a U.S.-based donor through a UK-based son and a suggestion that similar methods had been used before. Al Jazeera reported that the Liberal Democrats also said they had referred Reform to police.

The Metropolitan Police said it was aware of the allegations in the broadcast and would assess any information provided. That did not amount to the formal launch of an investigation.

The Electoral Commission, which oversees political finance in Britain, said it was “considering all relevant information” and was in touch with the Met Police. It also contradicted part of Reform’s defence. “The Electoral Commission has not approved the donor vetting process for Reform, or any other party,” it said. “Parties are responsible for ensuring their internal processes and controls are fit for purpose.”

The allegations come as Reform’s lead in opinion polls has softened amid scrutiny over donations. Farage, a former Brexit campaigner and ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, is already under parliamentary investigation over a £5 million donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in 2024. Farage denies wrongdoing. Al Jazeera reported that criminal and parliamentary investigations into Harborne’s donations are continuing and that Harborne has also given Reform more than £25 million.