Left-Wing Activists Set a Trap for Nigel Farage, Deepening Pressure over Questionable Donations

New revelations have overshadowed Reform UK's annual conference, placing party leader Nigel Farage under renewed pressure over political donations. Farage had planned to use the gathering to present a 100-day programme for changing Britain's migration policy and welfare system if his party won an election. A speech by Jordan Bardella of France's National Rally was also intended to highlight ties with Europe's right wing.

Instead, an undercover film broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 has raised fresh questions about party financing. The investigation came from Lawrence Carter and Louis Wilson, left-wing activist journalists who founded the investigative project Verbatim. Wilson posed as William Lockwood, the British-based son of a wealthy American who wanted to support Reform UK.

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Totally legitimate.

British rules allow party donations only from registered voters in the United Kingdom or companies based there. The undercover journalist first met James Orr, Reform UK's political director. They agreed that Lockwood would pay for opinion polls commissioned by the party from a polling company. Because the money would go to the company rather than directly to Reform UK, Orr said it was “totally legitimate.”

The investigation says £32,500 was paid for polls designed to show, among other things, that Labour would lose a possible election or that trade unions supported Farage. Orr also told the undercover journalist, “Nigel does not know, and will not know.” When the journalist later suggested a direct donation of £500,000, he met Farage's chief of staff, Dan Jukes, who proposed a plan involving the American donor. Reform UK has called the film a staged “fraud.”

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Nigel does not know, and will not know.