Reform UK has cleared two senior officials of breaking laws that ban foreign donations, despite the matter remaining under police investigation.
The party published a ۲۷-page report of an internal inquiry finding that Dan Jukes, Nigel Farage’s press adviser, and James Orr, its head of policy, had not breached funding rules.
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 ۴ News.
However, Labour said the report was a “whitewash” given it was undertaken by the party’s legal secretary, Adam Richardson, a barrister with a longstanding association with the party, and Tom Waterhouse, its general secretary. Labour also said it was not credible for the party to distance itself from the scandal by claiming Orr and Jukes, two of Farage’s top team, were just contractors.
Police have been investigating potential offences 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.
Jukes and Orr were filmed talking about a scheme in which a US donor paid for three polls with favourable narratives for Reform, costing more than £۳۰,۰۰۰. Donations from overseas sources are not allowed under political funding laws.
Jukes also discussed the idea of the US donor giving £۵۰۰,۰۰۰ to Reform through his UK-based son. The men they thought were father and son were undercover reporters.
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.
In its internal report, Reform said it did not excuse the “foolish” way in which Jukes and Orr discussed donations with an overseas donor. But it said the party had not commissioned the £۳۰,۰۰۰ polling from the US donor, as Jukes was a contractor rather than a staff member.
Orr was recorded suggesting the US businessman could pay for opinion polling to help with the party’s campaigns, which would “technically be a donation in kind” but “the reality is we could easily get away with it”.
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, “the payments made to JL Partners were therefore not donations to Reform UK within the meaning of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act ۲۰۰۰”.
In relation to discussions about the £۵۰۰,۰۰۰, 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.
The report said: “Nothing was agreed, no donations were made and no formal position was presented to the party’s finance team, and nothing was accepted. The party’s procedures for checking the identity of a donor and the source of funds were never engaged, because nothing reached them.”
Orr had also told the undercover reporter: “If there’s a non-trivial chance of you guys directly giving a … five or six-figure sum, then we could do a lunch with Nigel.” The report said “the words used were unwise” but concluded that “they were not a price”.
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 “he simply invented circumstances for the purposes of not derailing the conversation” and that it was “foolish, loose talk” without foundation.
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The investigation “found no basis for the suggestion that any supporter of the party has given in the way described”. As a result of the episode, which overshadowed Reform’s conference in early September, the party said it would bring in rules that the party treasurer’s 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.
But Labour’s chair, Bridget Phillipson, said “nothing in it exonerates Reform or Nigel Farage from the serious allegations that they still face”.
“The scandals and multiple police investigations aren’t going away. It’s time to stop the desperate deflection and cover ups,” she added.
A Reform spokesperson said: “Following the allegations raised by Verbatim Investigations and Channel ۴ on ۳ September, Reform UK commissioned a comprehensive internal investigation.
“The investigation examined all relevant evidence, including witness interviews, documentary records and electronic communications.
“Having concluded the review, the investigation found no evidence that any laws were broken. Reform UK takes its obligations on governance and conduct extremely seriously.
“We consider that the production company – Verbatim – acted unlawfully and will be taking the appropriate legal action in due course.”
Jukes told the Telegraph, which first reported the findings of the internal investigation: “I welcome the finding of this investigation, which crucially has found I did not break the law, as I have maintained from the outset.
“I am also considering all appropriate legal remedies in relation to any false and damaging statements made about me.
“For now, I will continue to take a break from politics to pursue other opportunities.”
A spokesperson for Verbatim said: “We note that this report is an internal one authored by Reform’s own barrister and general secretary, and that a police investigation remains ongoing. We are confident in our journalism, which speaks for itself.”
