The financial scandal around Reform UK has deepened as police expanded their investigation into allegations of illegal foreign donations and the elections watchdog said it was considering regulatory steps.
Police confirmed on Wednesday they would broaden their inquiries into Reform after Channel ۴ News broadcast an undercover sting by a group called Verbatim, in which a reporter posed as a foreign donor seeking to fund Reform.
The Electoral Commission also said on Wednesday that it was “considering all relevant information and regulatory steps” in parallel with the police inquiry.
Two of Nigel Farage’s close advisers, Dan Jukes and James Orr, resigned last week after the footage showed them discussing ways to get around electoral law with a reporter posing as the son of a foreign businessman.
The fake US-based donor also paid for more than £۳۰,۰۰۰ of polling intended to benefit Reform that was not publicly declared. In the footage, Jukes also appeared to suggest the impermissible US donor could contribute through his UK-based son as a way to get round election law banning foreign donations.
The police investigation will form part of an existing inquiry into Reform’s political funding before July ۲۰۲۴, including allegations that it took impermissible donations.
It means the party is facing intense scrutiny on multiple fronts, with a separate parliamentary standards investigation into Farage’s gift of £۵m from an overseas donor, first revealed by the Guardian, and calls for a wider investigation into his undeclared funding from his unpaid aide, the fraudster George Cottrell.
It also raises the prospect that Farage and other senior figures linked to the party could end up being interviewed by detectives, although the force stressed that no arrests had been made so far, and no one had been interviewed under caution, in relation to the latest allegations.
The initial police investigation into Reform, launched in February last year, relates to allegations about £۵۰۰,۰۰۰ donations to Reform UK before the ۲۰۲۴ election from Fiona Cottrell, the mother of George Cottrell. Both have been interviewed under caution.
The financial scandals overshadowed Reform’s autumn conference last week, with the party beginning to slip in some polls into second place behind Labour and opinion surveys suggesting voters are have noticed stories about the party’s funding.
A Met spokesperson said: “Following a broadcast by Channel ۴ News on Thursday ۳ September, 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.
“Detectives are now seeking to obtain relevant footage relating to the broadcast and are liaising with the Electoral Commission and Crown Prosecution Service as inquiries progress.”
A Reform UK spokesperson said the party “denies any wrongdoing and will fully cooperate with the investigation”. It added: “We won’t be commenting further while a live investigation is underway.” Jukes and Orr have both also denied wrongdoing.
In the undercover investigation, the journalists posed as a potential Reform supporter and his wealthy American father, an impermissible donor, who paid for £۳۰,۰۰۰ of polling commissioned by Reform and which benefited the party when it was published in national newspapers.
If found to have been a donation in kind and made from abroad, it would have been impermissible as it was a foreign source and was not registered with the Electoral Commission.
Farage was subsequently caught on camera in a meeting with the fake US donor in Clacton where he appears to be celebrating the success of the poll, saying it was “amazing” and provided “bang for buck”. He said: “It worked. Boom.”
In footage of another meeting, Jukes appeared to suggest to the fake UK-based supporter that his US-based father could make a substantial donation by channelling it through the son. When the possible structure was explained to Farage, footage of a meeting between him and the fake donors shows him saying: “Thank you both.” Farage has since said he was not listening.
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At another point, Orr appeared to suggest that the fake UK-based donor and his US father might secure a meeting with Farage if he could promise a five- or six-figure sum. The meeting later took place in Clacton with Jukes over oysters and champagne.
In a different clip, Orr can be heard saying of the poll funding arrangement that Farage “doesn’t know, won’t know” and it was the kind of thing he would “rather not know”. At one point the footage shows him saying it was “totally legit” and with “nothing untowards about it at all”.
The Guardian reported last week that the police were highly likely to launch a full investigation into the allegations.
Reform initially dismissed the investigation by Verbatim as a hoax and Farage responded by reading out a legal statement in which he described it as “a little local difficulty” and an “an exercise in entrapment”.
Farage claimed Orr and Jukes had merely been “contractors” who engaged in “loose pub talk, including a couple of boasts that simply were not true” – despite Jukes having been the Reform UK leader’s very close adviser for more than decade.
A spokesperson for Verbatim, which was founded by the Centre for Climate Reporting, said the group would cooperate with the police investigation.
The initial police investigation into Reform was launched in February last year after a referral from the Electoral Commission. Lawyers acting for George Cottrell, who lives in Montenegro, have previously said he had no comment to make. In a prior letter to the Guardian, the lawyers stated that “his mother’s donations have been entirely her own decision, and are a matter for her”.
Both George and Fiona Cottrell were previously interviewed under criminal caution by Scotland Yard detectives. They attended voluntarily.
Fiona Cottrell, who lives in Worcestershire and once dated King Charles, has not responded to questions from the media about any issues involving her support for the Reform party.
Lisa Smart, the Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson, said: “Thanks to Channel ۴’s investigation we all saw with our own eyes Farage’s true colours … We welcome the Met police’s criminal inquiry into their finances, and if proven, Nigel Farage and his cronies should face the full force of the law.”
