Reform UK inquiry clears advisers but police investigation continues

Reform UK has published a 27-page internal investigation into allegations that senior party figures breached electoral law over donations. The inquiry was commissioned after an undercover investigation broadcast last month. It examined witness interviews, documentary records and electronic communications, and concluded that there was no evidence any laws were broken.

The allegations centred on two senior advisers, James Orr and Dan Jukes. Both stood down after the undercover sting aired on the eve of Reform UK's conference. They were recorded appearing to arrange for a US company to fund three opinion polls for the party, at a total cost of £32,500. Both denied wrongdoing.

The internal report set out several defences. It said Reform UK did not commission any of the three polls. It said the payments were not illegal. It said a proposed £500,000 donation did not take place, and that nobody donated through their children. It found no breach of electoral law. It also said there was no evidence that Nigel Farage knew how the three polls had been paid for before a lunch with the undercover team in his constituency last July.

The report acknowledged that Dan Jukes arranged the polls. But it described him as a party contractor who acted on his own account and at his own risk. Under electoral law, political donations include funding that helps a party meet costs and expenses, such as payments for studies and research. The report said the funding of the polls did not need to be disclosed as donations because the party did not commission them.

The investigation was conducted by Adam Richardson, a barrister working for Reform UK, and the party's general secretary, Tom Waterhouse. It proposed changes to internal procedures, including enhanced background checks on proposed donors and tighter rules on the commissioning of polls by anyone connected with the party.

The report also addressed a discussion of a potential donation by undercover reporters posing as an English son and an American father. The money would have been registered by the son but originally came from the US, which would not be a legal donation. The report said Mr Farage did not know about the funding before the meeting, and it noted that the proposed donation ultimately did not take place. The party's procedures for checking a donor's identity and the source of funds therefore never engaged, it said.

The Metropolitan Police is carrying out a separate criminal investigation into the findings of the undercover operation. The party said it would wait until the conclusion of the police investigation before deciding on the futures of Mr Jukes and Mr Orr, who have been suspended. Mr Jukes said he welcomed the findings, which found he did not break the law as he had maintained from the outset. He added that he was considering all appropriate legal remedies over what he called false and damaging statements made about him.

Reform UK also said it considered that the production company behind the undercover operation, Verbatim, had acted unlawfully and that it would take appropriate legal action in due course. The broadcaster that aired the investigation responded by standing by its journalism. It said the investigation had undergone extensive editorial and external legal scrutiny before broadcast. Given the ongoing police investigation, it said it would not comment further.

Labour described the internal report as a whitewash. The party's chair, Bridget Phillipson, said: 'You can find more whitewash in this report than at your local B&Q.' Labour argued that the internal review had only limited relevance while parallel proceedings, including the police investigation and potential Electoral Commission inquiries, were under way. The row has kept attention on Reform UK's governance and donation rules, even as the party insists its internal review has cleared the senior advisers at the centre of the claims.