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🇱🇹 Lithuania /Elections & Politics

New scandal shakes Nigel Farage’s Reform UK

From Delfi · () Lithuanian

Translated from Lithuanian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Under investigation
  • Two senior Reform UK officials resigned after an undercover investigation alleged they worked together to secure a prohibited foreign donation.
  • Nigel Farage denied that the party had broken the law and called it the victim of a sting operation, while police said they were aware of the reports.
  • The controversy comes as Reform UK faces renewed scrutiny over its finances and has recently fallen behind the Labour Party in opinion polls.

Reform UK arrived at its annual conference in Birmingham under pressure from a new funding scandal, just hours before Nigel Farage was due to deliver his main speech. The party said its policy chief James Orr and longtime Farage aide Dan Jukes had resigned while an internal investigation runs its course.

The resignations followed an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News. It alleged that the two officials had worked together to obtain a donation from abroad, something prohibited under British election law. The supposed donors were journalists from the investigative group Verbatim, posing as representatives of a U.S. company that offered to pay for three opinion polls commissioned by Reform UK earlier this year.

not broken any laws

· Nigel FarageFarage denied allegations involving an attempted foreign donation in an interview with LBC radio.

The governing Labour Party was among the parties that said it had referred the allegations to police. London police said they were “aware” of the reports. Farage, 62, rejected the accusations in an interview with LBC, insisting that Reform UK had “not broken any laws” and had become the victim of a “sting operation.”

sting operation

· Nigel FarageHe described Reform UK as the victim of an undercover operation.

The scandal threatens to overshadow Farage’s attempt to regain momentum. Reform UK led Labour in opinion polls for more than a year until the end of July, but recently slipped behind as scrutiny of Farage’s finances intensified and Labour recovered after Andy Burnham became prime minister. Parliament’s corruption watchdog is already examining a £5 million donation from British cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne. Farage says the money funded his security and did not need to be declared because he received it before entering Parliament.

Farage remains Reform UK’s most recognizable figure, and the party’s rise remains closely tied to his outspoken, anti-establishment populist image. A party delegate, D Darren Ballas, said the controversy would not hurt its prospects, predicting that Reform UK would eventually enter government and arguing that immigration is a major problem for Britain.

I think Reform UK will definitely come into government. We need it. Reform UK is the only party that can save this country. Immigration is a huge problem for the United Kingdom. It has to be dealt with.

· Darren BallasThe Reform UK conference delegate said the scandal would not damage the party’s prospects.
About this summary

Originally published by Delfi in Lithuanian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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