LONDON — Two senior aides to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have stepped down after a Channel 4 News investigation detailed alleged attempts to circumvent electoral law for foreign donations. Farage described the secretly recorded comments by his head of policy, James Orr, and close aide, Dan Jukes, as "injudicious and loose pub talk."
The allegations emerged from undercover filming by Verbatim Investigations, broadcast by Channel 4 News on Thursday. The report claimed Orr and Jukes suggested methods to secure foreign party donations, including a potential £500,000 sum.
Under UK electoral law, permissible donors to a political party must be either a UK registered voter or a company registered within the UK.
During the investigation, a reporter posing as a potential party donor raised concerns to Jukes that his American father would be unable to legally donate directly to Reform UK. According to Channel 4, Jukes suggested the donation could be made in the UK-based son's name, even though the funds would originate from his American father. Jukes reportedly claimed this mechanism had been used "several times before."
Farage said at a press conference that Jukes' claims were "simply not true." He asserted that such donations "haven't occurred and don't exist in our accounts" and said Reform UK takes compliance regarding donations "very seriously."
Orr also appeared in the undercover footage and suggested to the reporter that the American father could instead pay for opinion polling to support Reform's campaigns. Channel 4 News reported that three such polls were commissioned this way, costing £32,500 in total. The report alleged the public was not informed about who commissioned or funded these polls.
Jukes said the situation was "entrapment over a prolonged period of nearly a year by foreign-funded climate change activists." He denied wrongdoing but confirmed he had "stepped back from politics in order to clear my name."
Orr told Sky News that he had "agreed to step down from my current role at Reform UK pending the outcome of the party's internal investigation into the conduct of the programme, with which I will cooperate fully."
A Verbatim Investigations spokesperson told BBC News that the investigation was "carried out to the highest journalistic standards" and that "the plots we exposed were proposed by Mr Jukes and Mr Orr."
