‘If that isn’t a business interest, I don’t know what is’ – Reform in donor sting crisis
Two senior Reform UK figures have stepped down after an undercover investigation appeared to show them arranging a donor to pay for polling in a potential breach of electoral law.
Reform’s head of policy James Orr and Dan Jukes, a top aide to Nigel Farage, stood down pending the result of an internal probe that the party said would take place “independently and without prejudice”.
Opposition parties have reported Reform to the police for breaking electoral law during the film, in which Orr and Jukes are shown arranging for a a US ‘donor’ to pay for three arms-length surveys with pollster JL Partners.
As part of the documentary, which ran on Thursday night just as Reform UK’s party conference kicked off in Birmingham, Farage is filmed meeting the undercover journalist’s representatives, telling them the polling was “amazing” and constituted great “bang for buck”.
The sting was conducted by Verbatim, the investigative journalism arm of the Centre for Climate.
Promoting the benefits of building a relationship with the party, Jukes told the would-be donor: “If Nigel makes it to Number 10, you’re having a pint with who’s effectively gonna be his chief of staff in Number 10. If that isn’t a business interest, I don’t know what is.”
Reform policy chief: ‘Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone’
Orr is recorded telling the ‘donor’ – a Verbatim journalist – that Farage would maintain a distance from the polling operation. “I wouldn’t breathe a word of this to anybody,” he said. “Nigel doesn’t know. Won’t know. It’s the kind of thing he would rather not know.”
Orr, widely viewed to be the main intellectual force behind Reform UK, also suggested in the secretly filmed footage that the public would never learn of the real source of the funding, branding the elections watchdog “completely useless”.
Speaking to LBC this morning, Farage said the sting was entrapment.
“The party has broken no laws, not taken dodgy money or anything like that. It’s a clear case of entrapment, and they got a couple of our contractors to say things that perhaps should not have been said. They have been removed this morning. I’m not happy about it.
“An independent third party commissioned a poll. It was helpful to Reform but we had nothing to do with it. There’s nothing illegal about it. Polling can be paid for by anybody providing it was put into the public domain.
“There’s no question of illegality – I have a strong KC’s opinion on that. It was an independent third party. That is nothing.”
He added: “We threaten the whole establishment ecosystem which has been in power for 100 years. They don’t want a new political party, a new set of faces coming in and taking over. No illegal transaction has occurred.”
Reform has denied any wrongdoing, and branded the undercover operation a “political sting from some net zero activists”. It also said it would not comment further while its investigation was ongoing.
Following the report, the Liberal Democrats’ Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart wrote to Met Police’s special enquiry team, about what she said constituted a “potential serious breach of electoral law”.
“The breach raises alarming questions about whether there has been a wider complacency toward foreign interference by the individuals involved,” she added.
Labour has said it also intends to report the matter to the police, while the Green party has called probe as well.
“This scandal goes right to the top of Reform UK,” Labour party chair Bridge Phillipson said. “Nigel Farage needs to urgently prove today that his top team haven’t broken the law and secretly plotted to undermine our democracy.
“It’s not just Farage’s secret £5 million ‘gift’. Time and again he and his mates think the rules don’t apply to them. The sleaze and scandal now engulfing him and his Party isn’t going away – it’s getting worse.”
The investigation plunges the party into another sleaze scandal, months after questions around the nature of a £5m gift from a cryptocurrency billionaire forced Nigel Farage to resign as an MP and call a byelection. The party leader comfortably won the vote last month, but a probe into the
The Met Police said in a statemement: “We’re aware of media reporting on Thursday, 3 September involving political party donations and an alleged breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 relating to polling.
“We will assess this matter and any information provided to us.”