Two prominent officials from Britain’s Reform UK have resigned their positions amid a fresh funding controversy surrounding the far-right party. James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a long-term aide to leader Nigel Farage, announced their departures on Friday following the broadcast of an investigative documentary by Channel 4 News.
The undercover report alleged that Reform UK officials attempted to circumvent electoral laws by arranging for an overseas company to finance polling activities. In the footage, Jukes is seen discussing methods to bypass donation regulations with an undercover reporter. The revelations come at a critical time for the party, as it prepares for its annual conference amid declining public support and persistent scrutiny over its financial practices.
During the documentary, Nigel Farage is shown at a table where an undercover reporter mentions previous discussions with Orr. Farage responded to the reporter by asserting that all party activities were “above board.” In a subsequent radio interview on Friday, the party leader maintained that Reform had “broken no laws,” though he acknowledged that the “entrapped conversations don’t look good,” which prompted the party to launch an internal investigation.
The fallout has drawn attention from law enforcement and political rivals. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police confirmed they are aware of media reports concerning potential breaches of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Both the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats have formally reported Reform to the police, despite the party initially dismissing the allegations as a “hoax.”
Farage defended his party by accusing other political organizations of “selling peerages,” stating, “In the world of political funding, all sorts of things have been done over decades that are wrong. We as a party have done nothing wrong. A couple of our contractors have said things that shouldn’t have been said.”
This latest incident adds to a series of financial scandals that have plagued the party recently. Most notably, the party has faced intense scrutiny over an undeclared personal gift of 5 million pounds ($6.7m) provided to Farage by cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne. Harborne has also donated more than 25 million pounds ($33.6m) to Reform, with both parliamentary and criminal investigations into these funds currently ongoing. Investigators are specifically examining ties between Harborne’s cryptocurrency, Tether, and allegations of fraud, drug cartels, and human trafficking.
The controversy follows a period of political turbulence for Farage, who previously resigned his parliamentary seat to trigger a by-election, framing the move as a challenge to “the establishment.” While he won the subsequent vote comfortably, the nearly 10,000 votes secured by his closest challenger, “intergalactic space warrior” Count Binface, highlighted significant pockets of opposition to his leadership. The report also notes that amid the storm, Farage made international headlines by resigning his parliamentary seat to prompt a by-election, in which he cast himself as taking on “the establishment”.
Source: Al Jazeera
