Reform head of policy and Farage’s chief of staff suspended over undercover donations sting

Reform’s head of policy, James Orr, and his media aide Dan Jukes have stepped down after an undercover investigation revealed they had plotted ways to get around electoral law on foreign donations.

Reform said Jukes and Orr have been suspended pending an internal investigation.

However, in an interview this morning, Reform MP Lee Anderson said there is “no chance of them coming back” and “They have gone”.

In the undercover video footage, Jukes suggested a way to get around electoral law to secure a foreign donation of £500,000 for Reform.

The investigation was carried out by investigative journalism outlet Verbatim, founded by the Centre for Climate Reporting.

In one clip, Orr suggests that the undercover Verbatim reporter’s American father could pay for an opinion poll.

Orr said the poll would cost £18,000 plus VAT, and suggests the polling company could send the bill to the undercover reporter. 

UK electoral law states that to be a permissible donor to a UK political party you must be a UK registered voter, or a company registered in the UK.

In this case, Reform aimed to get around electoral law by arranging for the British-born son of an American donor to pay for the poll using money provided by his father.

In all, Channel 4 News says Reform commissioned three polls costing £32,500 in total and that the public was not told who commissioned or funded them. 

Not disclosing the funding of the poll and accepting foreign funding would both be illegal. 

Orr said Farage wouldn’t know anything about who funded the poll. He said: “I wouldn’t breathe a word of this to anybody. Nigel doesn’t know, won’t know. It’s the kind of thing he would rather not know.”

However, in another clip, an actor posing as an American businessman says he was “thrilled” to have been able to “pick up the tab” for the JL Partners Poll that Reform commissioned. 

Farage agreed: “Yes, that was great!”, indicating he was aware of who funded it. 

Jukes denied any wrongdoing but said that he had “stepped back from politics in order to clear my name”.

He also said: “This was entrapment over a prolonged period of nearly a year by foreign-funded climate change activists.”

Nigel Farage said: “The party has not done anything wrong, but entrapped conversations don’t look good, and that’s why we’ve taken the action we have.”

Former Labour spin doctor Alistair Campbell wrote on X: “If Orr and Jukes have had to step down then so should Farage. He was in on the whole thing, as was clear from the footage. Waiting to hear bluster from Richard Stupid Tice shortly … a clue to his conduct. The louder he shouts the guiltier they are.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward