By Elizabeth Piper, Andrew MacAskill and Alistair Smout
BIRMINGHAM, England, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Britain’s populist Reform UK said two senior aides to leader Nigel Farage stepped down on Friday after an undercover investigation alleged the party had broken electoral law by arranging for a foreign donor to pay for political polling.
Reform — which has seen its commanding lead in opinion polls falter over other funding allegations — denied any wrongdoing and said it had been the victim of a hoax perpetrated by climate activists.
The governing Labour Party wrote to the police asking them to investigate possible criminal offences, including an alleged proposal to channel a larger overseas donation through a UK intermediary.
BROADCAST ON EVE OF REFORM UK CONFERENCE
The investigation, broadcast by Channel 4 just before Reform’s annual conference opened to the public, said two senior figures in Reform had arranged for a U.S. company to pay more than £30,000 for three opinion polls commissioned by the party.
Such an arrangement could breach British laws on political funding, which ban foreign donations.
Posing as wealthy donors from the United States with British connections, the undercover team from an investigative group called Verbatim said it spent a year speaking to top officials in Reform about possible donations, culminating in a lunch with Farage.
Channel 4 said Verbatim was an independent organisation founded by journalists from the Centre for Climate Reporting, but that it had verified their findings, which included covertly filmed footage of meetings.
Farage, a veteran Brexit campaigner who is under parliamentary investigation over earlier donations, told LBC radio: “The party has broken no laws. The party has not taken any dodgy money or anything like that whatsoever.”
FARAGE SAYS AIDES WERE ‘ENTRAPPED’
The new accusations cast a shadow over Reform’s annual conference in the central English city of Birmingham, where thousands of supporters flocked to listen to Farage and Reform’s seven other lawmakers set out their plans for government.
The party wanted to show its readiness to take power in the next elections — which are not due until 2029 but could come earlier if Britain’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, decides he needs a new mandate from the voting public.
Instead, Reform spent almost equal amounts of time either vigorously denying the accusations or trying to ignore them.
The party announced an internal investigation and said the two officials featured in the undercover filming — head of policy James Orr and Farage’s right-hand man Dan Jukes — had stepped down pending its results.
Orr, a philosophy professor at the University of Cambridge and friend of U.S. Vice President JD Vance, said in a video on X that Reform had not been involved in commissioning the poll. Jukes has yet to offer any public comment on the accusations.
On Friday, Farage said both Jukes and Orr had “said things that shouldn’t have been said” in relation to donations purportedly originating in the United States, but no such donation had been accepted by the party and that the two had been “entrapped”.
Farage, 62, is already under parliamentary investigation over a £5 million donation from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne in 2024. He denies any wrongdoing.
LABOUR ALLEGE FURTHER POSSIBLE BREACHES
In a letter to the Metropolitan Police, Labour said the documentary contained two further possible breaches: discussion of channelling a donation from a U.S.-based donor through a UK-based son and the suggestion that similar methods have been used in the past.
The police said they were aware of the allegations in the broadcast and would assess any information provided to them. This did not amount to the formal launch of an investigation.
The Electoral Commission, which oversees and regulates political finance in Britain, said it was considering the information and was in touch with the police.
The new allegations were more evidence that could lead some voters to question whether the party was ready for government, said Keiran Pedley, director of UK politics at the pollster Ipsos. “This is an issue that is cutting through,” he added.
At the conference, several Reform officials acknowledged that the ‘sting’ was bad for the party. One said on condition of anonymity that it was “survivable” and that Farage would stay on.
“Everyone needs to unite and stand behind Nigel Farage and support him with what he is going to be going through at the moment,” said Nadine Dorries, a former Conservative member of parliament who switched to Reform last year.
There was little need to persuade Farage’s supporters of that in Birmingham.
“I think Nigel’s definitely still the right leader. I don’t think anybody can match him,” said Charles Amos, 26, who teaches political philosophy and ethics at King’s College London.
“If other parties had done what Reform has done, they would also face scrutiny. I don’t think it would be as intense.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Andrew MacAskill and Alistair Smout in Birmingham, writing by William James; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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