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BBC Laura Kuenssberg interviews Nigel Farage over foreign donor talks

journalismSep 6, 202666643

Nigel Farage told BBC's Laura Kuenssberg he "frankly wasn't listening" during an undercover conversation in which his former chief of staff Dan Jukes and ex-head of policy James Orr discussed routing what was suggested as a £500,000 US donation to Reform UK through a UK-based relative. The film by Verbatim Investigations and Channel 4 News recorded Jukes and Orr talking about asking a fake company to pay for polling and about a US donor giving via his UK-based son; the proposed donation was never made because it was an undercover sting. Jukes has denied wrongdoing and Orr has said he will co-operate fully with Reform's internal investigation; both men have been removed from their roles pending that probe. Farage said he was canvassing in the Clacton by-election at the time, that he is not a compliance officer, and that he had been told there was a global family office based in London which could receive income from overseas. He denied that Reform had ever taken foreign money channeled through a UK donor and said he knows donation law well, but acknowledged the two aides should not have been involved in fundraising without vetting. Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called on the Metropolitan Police to investigate; the force is assessing whether to open an investigation. Farage also told Kuenssberg that his family are "begging" him to leave politics and that he had not yet considered standing down.

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