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Two senior officials resigned from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on Friday as the party was reported to the police over fresh allegations it flouted donation rules.
Farage’s aide Dan Jukes and Reform’s head of policy James Orr stepped down, the party said.
Reform UK has been reported to the Metropolitan Police and the Electoral Commission over illegal donations. The Liberal Democrats Cabinet Office spokesperson Lisa Smart said the case involved “the acceptance and concealment of a donation from an impermissible donor.”
The complaint follows an undercover investigation aired by UK broadcaster Channel 4 News from a company called Verbatim who captured members of the Reform party discussing donations from the son of an American financier who is actually an undercover reporter. Under UK law, donations from foreign investors are illegal.
The ruling Labour party has also said it intends to report the matter to the police.
Reform has denied wrongdoing and dismissed the report as “a hoax perpetuated by foreign-funded, climate change activists posing as would-be party donors,” insisting the party has “a robust vetting process for prospective donors approved by the Electoral Commission”.
In a statement the party said “While Reform UK denies all wrongdoing in relation to the Channel 4 hit job this evening, as a matter of course, the Party is launching an internal investigation regarding the circumstances surrounding the broadcast.”
A spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police said it was “aware of media reporting…involving political party donations and an alleged breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 relating to polling”.
It added that it would “assess this matter and any information provided to us”.
A former Electoral Commission chief executive has told Channel 4 the evidence points to possible criminal offences.
Conference opens under a cloud of scrutiny
The allegations land just as Reform opens its annual conference in Birmingham, where Farage is seeking to reassert his authority after a difficult summer that has seen the party slip behind Labour in the polls.
He is already the subject of a separate parliamentary standards investigation into a £5 million (€5.82m) donation from crypto entrepreneur Christopher Harborne.
Farage says it was a gift that was intended to cover his personal security and did not need declaring because it was received before he was elected as an MP.
Farage has repeatedly rejected any suggestion of impropriety, saying: “I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all.”
Deputy leader Richard Tice is also facing separate questions over undeclared gifts, something he also denies.
Additional sources • AFP