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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Two Reform UK officials resign amid new allegations of irregular funding

From ABC Color · () Spanish

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

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Under investigation
  • Reform UK policy chief James Orr and senior adviser Dan Jukes resigned while police examine allegations referred by the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.
  • A Channel 4 undercover investigation alleged that Jukes proposed a way to receive a £500,000 donation from a foreign businessman, while Orr discussed funding polls as an in-kind contribution.
  • Nigel Farage denied wrongdoing, but the allegations add to existing investigations into Reform UK donations and emerge during the party’s annual conference in Birmingham.

Two senior figures in Nigel Farage’s Reform UK resigned as fresh allegations over the party’s financing landed during its annual conference in Birmingham. Policy chief James Orr and Farage’s senior adviser Dan Jukes left their posts after Labour and the Liberal Democrats referred the case to police, who confirmed they would examine the claims.

The allegations followed an undercover investigation by Verbatim Investigations, broadcast by Channel 4. It showed Jukes proposing a mechanism for Reform UK to receive a £500,000 donation from a foreign businessman. British election law could prohibit such a contribution. The donation was never made: an actor posed as the American businessman, while a reporter posed as his son, who would have routed the money through the United Kingdom.

Orr had earlier suggested that the supposed businessman pay for polling on Reform UK’s behalf as an in-kind donation, a method that could avoid scrutiny. Channel 4 said the party commissioned three polls costing £32,500 in total. National media published the results without publicly identifying who commissioned or financed them.

has not broken any law

· Nigel FarageFarage defended Reform UK after the undercover allegations emerged.

Farage later met the journalists. After the supposed son explained the arrangement, Farage said it was legal and thanked him for his support. He said the party “has not broken any law” and had not “accepted dirty money.”

The new claims add to other inquiries involving Reform UK’s finances. Parliament’s standards commissioner is investigating a £5 million gift Farage received in 2024 from cryptocurrency businessman Christopher Harborne, which he did not initially declare. Police are also examining two donations of £250,000 each made that year by Fiona Cottrell, the mother of George Cottrell, a former Farage adviser convicted of financial crimes in the United States. The controversy comes before Farage’s conference speech and alongside complaints from journalists, including reporters from The Guardian and the BBC, that Reform UK denied them accreditation.

accepted dirty money

· Nigel FarageFarage denied that the party had received illicit funds.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. 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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