{"id":794942,"date":"2026-10-07T15:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T15:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/794942\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T15:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T15:26:19","slug":"reform-clears-its-own-officials-of-breaking-party-funding-laws-despite-police-investigation-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/794942\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform clears its own officials of breaking party funding laws despite police investigation | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reform UK has cleared two senior officials of breaking laws that ban foreign donations, despite the matter remaining under police investigation.<\/p>\n

The party published a 27-page report of an internal inquiry by its legal secretary and general secretary, finding that Dan Jukes, Nigel Farage\u2019s press adviser, and James Orr, its head of policy, had not breached funding rules.<\/p>\n

Party sources said they intended to pursue legal action against the undercover reporting group Verbatim, whose footage led to the investigation and was broadcast by Channel 4 News.<\/p>\n

Police have been investigating potential offences<\/a> under electoral law since the broadcast in early September, saying they would widen an existing special inquiry relating to donations made to Reform. Jukes and Orr will remain suspended by the party while the police inquiry continues.<\/p>\n

Jukes and Orr were filmed talking about a scheme<\/a> in which a US donor paid for three polls with favourable narratives for Reform, costing more than \u00a330,000. Donations from overseas sources are not allowed under political funding laws.<\/p>\n

\"FootageFootage from the Channel 4 News and Verbatim undercover investigation into Reform finances \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Jukes also discussed the idea of the US donor giving \u00a3500,000 to Reform through his UK-based son. The men they thought were father and son were undercover reporters.<\/p>\n

Farage later met the undercover reporters as would-be donors over lunch in Clacton, and did not object when the idea of the scheme was explained to him. He later said he had not been listening.<\/p>\n

In its internal report, Reform said it did not excuse the \u201cfoolish\u201d way in which Jukes and Orr discussed donations with an overseas donor. But it said the party had not commissioned the \u00a330,000 polling from the US donor, as Jukes was a contractor rather than a staff member.<\/p>\n

Orr was recorded suggesting that the US businessman could pay for opinion polling to help with the party\u2019s campaigns, which would \u201ctechnically be a donation in kind\u201d but \u201cthe reality is we could easily get away with it\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the internal report found that because Reform did not make any payment for the polls or directly arrange for them to be carried out, \u201cthe payments made to JL Partners were therefore not donations to Reform UK within the meaning of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ReformReform donations scandal: is this the final blow for Farage? – The Latest<\/p>\n

In relation to discussions about the \u00a3500,000, which was never handed over, the report said it found no evidence that Orr or Jukes knowingly entered into or acted in furtherance of an arrangement to facilitate an impermissible donation.<\/p>\n

The report said: \u201cNothing was agreed, no donations were made and no formal position was presented to the party\u2019s finance team, and nothing was accepted. The party\u2019s procedures for checking the identity of a donor and the source of funds were never engaged, because nothing reached them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orr had also told the undercover reporter: \u201cIf there\u2019s a non-trivial chance of you guys directly giving a \u2026 five or six-figure sum, then we could do a lunch with Nigel.\u201d The report said \u201cthe words used were unwise\u201d but concluded that \u201cthey were not a price\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also dismissed an incident in which Jukes discussed other purported foreign donors who had given money through their children, which would be against the rules. Jukes insisted \u201che simply invented circumstances for the purposes of not derailing the conversation\u201d and that it was \u201cfoolish, loose talk\u201d without foundation.<\/p>\n

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Dan Jukes, left, with Farage in Clacton in 2024. Jukes said he would \u2018continue to take a break from politics to pursue other opportunities\u2019. Photograph: Hollie Adams\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The investigation \u201cfound no basis for the suggestion that any supporter of the party has given in the way described\u201d. As a result of the episode, which overshadowed Reform\u2019s conference in early September, the party said it would bring in rules that the party treasurer\u2019s office must be informed in writing of proposed donations and that no meetings with proposed donors should take place until background checks had been carried out.<\/p>\n

A Reform spokesperson said: \u201cFollowing the allegations raised by Verbatim Investigations and Channel 4 on 3 September, Reform UK commissioned a comprehensive internal investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation examined all relevant evidence, including witness interviews, documentary records and electronic communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving concluded the review, the investigation found no evidence that any laws were broken. Reform UK takes its obligations on governance and conduct extremely seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consider that the production company \u2013 Verbatim \u2013 acted unlawfully and will be taking the appropriate legal action in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jukes told the Telegraph, which first reported the findings of the internal investigation: \u201cI welcome the finding of this investigation, which crucially has found I did not break the law, as I have maintained from the outset.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am also considering all appropriate legal remedies in relation to any false and damaging statements made about me.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, I will continue to take a break from politics to pursue other opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Verbatim said: \u201cWe note that this report is an internal one authored by Reform\u2019s own barrister and general secretary, and that a police investigation remains ongoing. We are confident in our journalism, which speaks for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK has cleared two senior officials of breaking laws that ban foreign donations, despite the matter remaining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-794942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}