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Nigel Farage has claimed he ‘wasn’t even listening’ during a meeting at the centre of a controversy about whether his party considered evading the law on accepting donations from overseas. The Reform UK leader also claimed he knew donation law ‘better than anybody’ during interviews as he sought to salvage the final day of his party conference from the fallout that has already cost him two of his closest aides.
Farage was forced to suspend his close aide Dan Jukes and Reform’s head of policy, James Orr, on Friday after they were filmed in an undercover investigation appearing to plot to get around electoral laws on foreign donations. The undercover reporters from Verbatim posed as a potential Reform supporter and his wealthy American father, an impermissible donor, who paid for £30,000 of polling commissioned by Reform and which benefited the party when it was published in national newspapers.
The Reform leader himself remains under pressure over a separate clip in which he was heard to say ‘it’s all above board’ after one of the reporters, posing as the UK-based son of a wealthy US backer, told Farage he had been in discussions with Jukes and Orr for some time. ‘I’ll be the registered donor,’ the son said. ‘But then dad will send the money to me, and then as soon as that’s done and all those conversations are had, the money is available.’
In an interview on Saturday, Farage told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that ‘of course’ he knew it was illegal for foreign firms to donate to UK parties, adding he was told the money was being given via a UK family office. When challenged by Kuenssberg that one of the undercover reporters had said they ‘run an American family office’, Farage replied, ‘I am not a compliance officer. I was in the middle of canvassing in the Clacton byelection. I turn up. I frankly wasn’t even listening.’ He further claimed, ‘I was told there was a global family office based in London, so the money could have come from Singapore. The money could come from all over the world, you know. Income could have come from all over the world into a family office based in London. I know electoral law. I know donation law better than anybody.’
Reform’s Treasury spokesperson, Robert Jenrick, gave a keynote speech pledging to increase the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 within the first 100 days if the party were to take office. The threshold has been set at £12,570 since 2021 and is due to remain there until 2031. However, Jenrick was forced to deflect from the donations controversy in interviews. ‘That’s been dealt with,’ he told GB News. ‘The two individuals concerned have gone, and we’re here today moving forward. The language that they used was clearly inappropriate, that was very disappointing.’
Farage accused ‘the establishment’ of trying to derail Reform UK during a challenge by ITV’s Robert Peston. He claimed, ‘And it will go on. You come back and see me in six months, there’ll be five more investigations. This won’t end.’ Farage also mentioned having ‘thoughtful’ moments over the summer, suggesting his family had urged him to ‘walk away’ from politics amid pressure.
The Met police are now assessing evidence after a complaint that Farage, Orr, and Jukes may have broken political funding laws. All deny wrongdoing.
On the final day of the conference, West Midlands police appealed for a woman, among climate activists removed from the hall on Friday for heckling Farage, to come forward after footage showed her allegedly being assaulted. The police initially responded to a clip showing audience members pulling her hair and grabbing her head as she was carried out. West Midlands police later stated they were aware of a video from the Reform UK conference showing an incident with a protester and had asked the woman to come forward.
Climate Resistance, which claimed responsibility for the protest, said the protester was considering speaking to police. Nadine Dorries, a former Conservative MP now with Reform, said sensitivities were ‘heightened’ after the killing of Reform spokesperson Anne Widdecombe in July. ‘They tried to completely derail the speech. It was an organised sting again,’ she said.
Suella Braverman, the party’s education spokesperson, announced a 20% cut to student loans, with funds only granted to university courses demonstrating good economic returns, except for some ‘strategic or cultural importance’ courses. Farage ended the conference with closing remarks, telling Reform supporters, ‘There would be good days and bad days. Sometimes we will get things wrong and get a bit of a kicking, but what this conference has shown is that whatever you throw at the leadership, whatever you throw at you, the people’s army, we immediately stop, pick ourselves up, and start all over again.’
Source: The Guardian
