Met Police launch criminal investigation into Reform UK after undercover sting
The party was reported to the police last week after senior aides were secretly recorded soliciting donations from undercover reporters posing as an American financier and his son
The Met Police have launched a criminal inquiry into Reform UK over allegations that the party broke donation rules by commissioning polling paid for by a US firm.
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Nigel Farage’s party took funding from a US firm for three polls it commissioned earlier this year, costing £32,500, Channel 4 News reported last Thursday.
One of Farage's senior aides, Dan Jukes, was also recorded seeing to secure a donation of £500,000 from a purported American financier and his son.
The 'donors' were in fact undercover reporters from investigative group Verbatim.
The Met Police announced a full criminal inquiry on Wednesday into allegations that the party breached donation rules barring accepting funding from foreign donors.
A spokesperson for the Met Police said: “Following a broadcast by Channel 4 News on Thursday, September 3, the Met received a number of reports relating to donations and polling involving a political party.
“Detectives have assessed the information provided and determined that there are potential offences requiring investigation.
"The potential offences are similar in nature to matters already under investigation by the Met’s Special Enquiry Team relating to donations made to the same political party. As a result, these matters will form part of that ongoing investigation.
“All allegations under investigation relate to potential offences under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
“As part of enquiries, detectives are seeking to obtain relevant footage relating to the broadcast on Thursday, September 3.
“Detectives continue to liaise closely with the Electoral Commission and Crown Prosecution Service as enquiries progress.”
A Reform UK Spokesman said: “Reform UK denies any wrongdoing and will fully cooperate with the investigation. We won’t be commenting further while a live investigation is underway.”
On Friday two of Farage's top aides filmed in the undercover report - James Orr and Dan Jukes -resigned from their positions.
Foreign companies are not a permissible source of funding for parties, including for payments for studies and research, under electoral law.
In this instance the son would be an eligible donor while the father would not have been.
Dan Jukes was filmed suggesting that the donation could be made in the UK-based son's name, while the money would have to come from the American father.
"Actually that does strike me as a solution," Jukes says.
Later on, the documentary films a lunch between the two donors, Nigel Farage, and Dan Jukes in the Reform UK leader's constituency of Clacton in Essex.
The financier's son explains that he will be the registered donor, and that the American-based father will transfer the money to his account.
Farage says: "Thank you. Well, both of you. Thank you".
It is the latest funding scandal to envelop Reform UK following allegations that Farage failed to declare a £5 million gift from the crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne given shortly before he was first elected to the Commons in 2024.
That gift is currently the subject of a parliamentary inquiry.
In a letter to the Met’s special enquiry team last week, Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart wrote: “I am writing to report to your unit a potential serious breach of electoral law, involving the acceptance and concealment of a donation from an impermissible donor.
“The breach raises alarming questions about whether there has been a wider complacency toward foreign interference by the individuals involved.”
Ms Smart said that James Orr, a senior adviser to Mr Farage, facilitating the £32,500 donation from an impermissible donor would mark a breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.
She continued: “The funding appears to have been channelled into political spending on behalf of Reform UK, and therefore a donation in kind, in a manner apparently structured so as to avoid the payment being recorded and reported as a donation to the Electoral Commission. This would constitute a clear breach of section 61 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.”