Reform officials ‘plotted to break law on foreign donations’ leaked video shows
Nigel Farage finds himself embroiled in a fresh political scandal on the eve of his party’s conference, after footage was […]
Nigel Farage finds himself embroiled in a fresh political scandal on the eve of his party’s conference, after footage was released by undercover reporters showing his team appearing to plot to avoid electoral laws on foreign donations in an undercover investigation broadcast by Channel 4 News.
A senior aide to Farage, Dan Jukes, was filmed suggesting a way to get around electoral law to secure a foreign donation of £500,000 for Reform UK.
Electoral law in the UK 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.
The undercover investigation was carried out by a group of investigative journalists called Verbatim, founded by the Centre for Climate Reporting.
Posing as the son of an American donor , he is filmed raising a concern that his father wouldn’t be able to directly donate to Reform within the law.
Filmed standing outside a pub in Westminster, Jukes tells the undercover reporter “you do realise that you can do it?”
Channel 4 say Jukes was suggesting that the donation could be in the UK-based son’s name, although the money would have come from his American father.
“Actually that does strike me as a solution,” Jukes continues.
He then admits to having done the same thing several times before.
“That’s one of the ways in which we do it,” he is recorded as saying.
In an earlier clip taken by Channel 4, James Orr, Reform’s head of policy, suggests to the undercover reporter that perhaps his father could pay for opinion polling to help Reform’s campaigning.
He says the poll would cost £18,000 plus VAT – and Orr suggests that perhaps the polling company could send the bill to the undercover reporter.
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 such funding would be illegal and accepting this kind of foreign funding would also be illegal.
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