LONDON — Anti-immigration party Reform UK suspended two senior officials on Friday after they were filmed appearing to discuss accepting funds from a foreign donor in potential breach of British electoral law. The party said Dan Jukes, an adviser to leader Nigel Farage, and policy chief James Orr “have stepped down from their respective positions” pending the outcome of an internal investigation. On Thursday, broadcaster Channel 4 aired footage of Jukes, at a lunch with Farage, discussing a plan to channel a 500,000 pound (US$675,000) donation from a U.S. financier through his U.K.-based son. The “son” was actually a reporter from investigative group Verbatim, and the “father” an actor. In separate footage Orr, a Cambridge University theologian, appears to discuss getting the U.S. donor to pay for opinion polls commissioned by Reform UK. Orr tells the undercover reporter that “we just don’t have British-resident donors, British entities, that would support us.” U.K. electoral law says parties can only accept donations from British voters or U.K.-registered businesses. The allegations overshadowed Reform’s annual conference, being held Friday and Saturday in Birmingham, central England. Farage insisted the party had not broken any rules or accepted “dodgy money” and accused the journalists of “entrapment” by what he called foreign-funded climate activists. Verbatim is an offshoot of the Centre for Climate Reporting, a nonprofit investigative group that says it is funded by grants and donations. “They got a couple of our contractors to say things that perhaps should not have been said,” Farage told radio station LBC. “And as a result of that, you know, they have been removed this morning. And yeah, you know, I’m not happy about it.” The governing Labour Party and opposition Liberal Democrats said they had reported the claims to London’s Metropolitan Police. The Electoral Commission, which oversees U.K. elections, said it was “considering all relevant information, in line with our regulatory remit, and we are in touch with the Met Police.” Founded in 2018 as the Brexit Party to push for a hard break from the European Union, Reform UK has grown rapidly in membership and support since changing its name in 2021 and honing its anti-establishment, anti-immigration message. Though it holds just eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, it has often led opinion polls and was the big winner in local elections in May, a result that helped spur a panicky Labour Party to replace then-leader Keir Starmer with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham. But Reform has recently suffered reverses, losing several special elections and facing questions about funding. Farage quit his House of Commons seat in July while facing a parliamentary ethics probe over an undeclared five million pound gift he received from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire in 2024, before he was elected to Parliament. Farage said he would run for reelection and let voters be his judge. He easily won the August election, which was dismissed as a stunt by his critics and boycotted by all the other main parties. Jill Lawless, The Associated Press
