Nigel Farage claims he 'wasn't even listening' during meeting at centre of Reform UK donation controversy

Nigel Farage has claimed that 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 a group called 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 saying “it’s all above board” after one of the reporters who was 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 says. “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 while in Farage’s presence, one of the undercover reporters had said they “run an American family office”, the Reform leader said: “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 added: “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.”

Farage’s party had been hoping to move the focus to policy announcements, including on tax cuts, as Reform’s conference closed in Birmingham on Saturday.

Its Treasury spokesperson, Robert Jenrick, gave a keynote speech in which he pledged 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.

But in interviews given earlier in the day to trail the policy, he also found himself forced to deflect from the donations controversy. “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.”

In an interview with Times Radio he said Orr and Jukes had been “permanently suspended”, appearing to differ from the latest party line that they had “stepped down pending outcome of an investigation”, indicating a possible way back.

Farage meanwhile accused “the establishment” of trying to derail Reform UK, when challenged by ITV’s Robert Peston on the string of allegations related to his and the party’s finances.

“And it will go on. You come back and see me in six months, there’ll be five more investigations. It won’t end. This won’t end,” he said.

Farage said he had some “thoughtful” moments over the summer, claiming his family had been asking him to “walk away” from politics amid pressure on them and him.

Despite Reform’s efforts to insulate Farage, the Met police are now assessing evidence after a complaint that the Reform leader, as well as Orr and Jukes, may have broken political funding laws. They all deny wrongdoing.

The final day of the conference also coincided with an appeal by West Midlands police for a woman, who was among climate activists who were removed from the hall on Friday as they heckled Farage’s speech, to come forward after footage emerged over her allegedly being assaulted.

The police initially responded on X to a clip that appeared to show audience members pulling her hair and grabbing her head as she was carried out of the conference hall. West Midlands police later said in a statement that they were aware of a video circulating from the Reform UK conference showing an incident with a protester, and had asked the woman to come forward.

The activist group Climate Resistance, which claimed responsibility for the protest during Farage’s speech , said the protester was considering whether to speak to police.

Nadine Dorries, a former Conservative MP who has joined Reform, said sensitivities were “heightened” in the aftermath of the killing of the Reform spokesperson Ann Widdecombe in July.

“They tried to completely derail the speech. It was an organised sting again,” she said in an interview with LBC when asked about the incident.

Also speaking on Saturday was Suella Braverman, the party’s education spokesperson who, like Jenrick, is another defector from the Conservatives.

Her speech announced a planned cut of 20% to the number of student loans given, with funds only granted to university courses that can demonstrate good economic returns, with exceptions for some courses “of strategic or cultural importance”.

Farage ended the conference with closing comments to the main hall, where sections of seating were unoccupied and the mood was more subdued than earlier in the event, by telling the Reform faithful that “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,” he said.