Two senior officials from Reform UK resigned on Friday as the party’s annual conference in Birmingham was engulfed by allegations that it violated electoral laws by accepting foreign donations. The claims were reported by Channel 4, which alleged that a US company paid more than \u00a330,000 on behalf of the party for three opinion polls.<\/p>\n
James Orr, head of policy, and Dan Jukes have both stepped down. A spokesperson for Reform UK announced that an internal investigation has been opened.<\/p>\n
Party leader Nigel Farage firmly denied any legal violation, describing the situation as entrapment. \u201cReform UK has broken no laws,\u201d Farage told LBC radio. He maintained that the party was the target of a deliberate setup.<\/p>\n
Orr also rejected the claims, arguing that the polls in question were arranged independently and not commissioned by the party. \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no way this could amount to a benefit or donation in kind,\u201d he said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t internal party polling. It was a public poll arranged by an independent person paying an independent pollster, and those polls were published immediately for the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the investigation, the funds came from undercover reporters working for Verbatim, an independent organization established by journalists from the Center for Climate Reporting. UK law strictly prohibits foreign donations to political parties.<\/p>\n
The scandal arrives at a sensitive time for Reform UK, which has seen its popularity decline due to previous controversies. Farage is currently under investigation by parliamentary watchdogs over a \u00a35 million donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in 2024 that he failed to declare. Farage denies wrongdoing, stating the contribution was received before his election and therefore not subject to declaration.<\/p>\n
The resignation adds pressure to the annual conference, where Farage had hoped to revive public support. France\u2019s National Rally leader Jordan Bardella is also scheduled to speak at the event.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Labour Party recently replaced Prime Minister Keir Starmer with Andy Burnham earlier this summer, a move that appears to have restored some favor to the ruling party. Farage had been gaining traction ahead of the May local elections, but the recent leadership change has shifted the political landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senior officials James Orr and Dan Jukes step down amid Channel 4 allegations of unlawful foreign funding as Reform UK launches an internal probe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[517,1119,67,518,169,168,10],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-electoral-law","tag-foreign-donations","tag-germany","tag-nigel-farage","tag-reform-uk","tag-uk-politics","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}