Nigel Farage has admitted that an undercover investigation into Reform UK’s approach to foreign donations “looks bad”, but he denied his party had ever breached electoral law by accepting overseas funding.
The Reform leader appeared to soften his position on the donations row engulfing his party after an undercover Channel 4 investigation filmed senior Reform figures appearing to agree to a donation from a foreign benefactor through a middle man. “This looks bad, as does the sale of peerages, as does government contracts for donations,” Farage told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg show. “We are not the first people to be involved in a row over donations.”
When asked to categorically rule out that Reform had ever taken foreign money, he said: “I can […] never happened.” Farage admitted that comments made by close aide Dan Jukes and head of policy James Orr were “injudicious at best”. Both men have been suspended from the party, pending an internal investigation.
The filmed meeting
In an excerpt from the BBC interview, published earlier in the week, Farage claimed he “wasn’t even listening” during a meeting which appeared at the centre of Channel 4’s documentary. Farage was filmed meeting with journalists posing as a wealthy American Reform backer and his son, who told the party leader that they have been in discussions over making a donation.
The Reform leader told the BBC he “of course” knew that it is illegal for foreign firms to donate to UK political parties. In the investigation, the journalist posing as the donor’s UK-based son tells Farage that he would pay the money to Reform after being sent it by his father. Farage said: “I am not a compliance officer. I was in the middle of canvassing in the Clacton byelection. I turn up. I frankly wasn’t even listening.”
He later said: “I was told there was a global family office based in London, so the money could have come from Singapore. The money could come from all over the world, you know. Income could have come from all over the world into a family office based in London. I know electoral law. I know donation law better than anybody.”
Political pressure mounts
Reform is facing pressure from across the political spectrum over the donations row. On Sunday, Tory shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith said the party should be investigated by the police for a breach of political donation rules. He told Times Radio: “Kemi [Badenoch] said [the investigation] warrants grounds for a police investigation, so that should take place.”
Labour business secretary Jonathan Reynolds echoed this sentiment, telling the same programme: “We have rules in this country about how our democracy works and everyone has to stick to them. And if you’re not willing to abide with them, if it’s a law, it’s a matter for the police. And clearly this goes absolutely to the top of Reform.”
Earlier in the week, Farage had dismissed comments made by Jukes and Orr in the documentary as “loose pub talk,” as he fought to prevent the row from overshadowing his party’s conference in Birmingham. However, the undercover footage and subsequent admissions by Farage have put the Reform leader in a precarious position, with the party’s reputation and potentially its legal standing on the line.