Met Police will investigate Reform donations after Channel 4 sting

The Metropolitan Police is investigating whether Reform UK broke electoral law on foreign donations following a Channel 4 sting. A Met spokesperson said on Wednesday: “Following a broadcast by Channel 4 News on Thursday, 3 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. Shorts “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. “All allegations under investigation relate to potential offences under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. “As part of enquiries, detectives are seeking to obtain relevant footage relating to the broadcast on Thursday, 3 September. “Detectives continue to liaise closely with the Electoral Commission and Crown Prosecution Service as enquiries progress.” A spokesperson for Reform said: “Reform UK denies any wrongdoing and will fully co-operate with the investigation. We won’t be commenting further while a live investigation is under way.” Reform was plunged into turmoil last week after undercover footage by Channel 4 News and the investigative outfit Verbatim appeared to capture senior party figures discussing ways of securing money from a US-based donor in potential breach of electoral laws banning foreign donations. The sting led to two figures at the heart of Reform’s operation – Nigel Farage’s long-standing aide Dan Jukes and head of policy James Orr – standing down pending the outcome of an internal investigation. The footage appeared to show the Reform aides arranging for a US company to secretly fund three opinion polls commissioned by the party, costing around £32,500. Orr was filmed saying that the money would “technically be a donation in kind” but “the reality is we could easily get away with it”. The £32,500 does not appear to have been declared, although Farage insisted last week that the polls had been commissioned by an independent third party and that Reform had “not done anything wrong”. The film also showed Jukes and Orr discussing the idea that the undercover reporter – who was posing as the Britain-based son of a rich American financier – could make a donation in his own name, even though the money would have come from his father. Foreign political donations are banned in the UK, and it is illegal to conceal that a donation has come from an impermissible source. Channel 4 said that the proposed £500,000 donation was never made. In the film, Jukes also appears to list other Reform supporters who have channelled donations through family members. At the party’s annual conference in Birmingham last week, Farage said that Jukes had only engaged in “loose pub talk”. “Donations from the names that were mentioned have not occurred [and] don’t exist… in our accounts,” he said.