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Two senior Reform UK officials step down after Channel 4 sting

politicsSep 4, 2026462,689

Reform UK said Nigel Farage's senior aide Dan Jukes and head of policy James Orr have stepped down as the party launched an internal investigation after a Channel 4 News undercover report. Channel 4 broadcast footage from a lunch in Clacton showing Jukes suggesting a way to circumvent electoral law to secure a supposed foreign donation of £500,000 and Orr proposing that the donor's father could pay for opinion polling costing £18,000 plus VAT with the bill routed to the son. The undercover filming was carried out by Verbatim Investigations; Channel 4 said it had verified the material before broadcasting. Reform denied wrongdoing, calling the filming a hoax perpetuated by foreign-funded climate change activists, while Jukes said he denied wrongdoing and had stepped back to clear his name. Labour and the Liberal Democrats reported the matter to the Metropolitan Police, which said it would assess any information provided. Farage told LBC the party had “broken no laws” and said a couple of contractors had said things they should not have said and had been removed that morning. The row risks overshadowing Reform's conference in Birmingham, which begins its first full day on Friday.

Peter Geoghegan
@petergeoghegan.bsky.social

Farage saying that Reform didn't commission the polling in the Channel 4/Verbatim sting. The footage seems to show something very different - Reform chose scope of polling; the price; got it on newspaper front pages and hawked around the invoices to be paid by an impermissible donor!

48644d ago
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