Reform UK faces scandal over alleged foreign donations ahead of conference

Reform UK's annual conference on Friday is being overshadowed by a fresh scandal, after a Channel 4 report alleged that the populist party flouted electoral laws by accepting foreign donations.

Senior party officials James Orr and Dan Jukes have stepped down following the allegations, and the party said it was launching an internal investigation.

The hard-right Reform denies wrongdoing, with leader Nigel Farage saying nothing illegal took place.

The allegations come at a time when the party is struggling with a dip in popularity fueled by similar scandals as well as the replacement of former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer with Andy Burnham.

Farage is due to address the conference and was hoping his speech would restore some of his popularity. Jordan Bardella, the leader of France's anti-immigrant, eurosceptic National Rally (RN) party, is also due to address the conference on Friday.

What are the latest allegations against Reform UK?

The Channel 4 investigation alleges that the two senior Reform figures had arranged for a US company to pay over £30,000 (roughly €35,000 or $40,570) for three party-commissioned opinion polls.

British laws on political funding ban foreign donations.

According to the investigation, the donors were in fact undercover reporters from an independent organization founded by journalists from the Center for Climate Reporting, called Verbatim.

Orr, the party's head of policy, said that Reform had not been involved in commissioning the poll.

"There's absolutely no way this could amount to a benefit or donation in kind at all," he said, "It wasn't internal party polling. It wasn't Reform UK's poll. It was a public poll arranged by an independent person paying an independent pollster, and those polls were published immediately for the general public."

Farage, 62, insisted in an interview with LBC radio that Reform had "broken no laws" and was the victim of "entrapment."

Reform's popularity dips ahead of annual conference

The latest scandal has overshadowed the party's annual conference in Birmingham, where Farage had hoped to turn the tide on a popularity dip mainly fueled by another scandal.

The veteran Brexit campaigner faces a parliamentary watchdog probe over a £5 million donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in 2024 which he had failed to declare to parliamentary authorities.

Farage denies any wrongdoing, saying the sum was received before he was elected and was therefore not subject to declaration.

Still, the scandal has had an impact on Farage and his party's popularity, especially since the Labour party swapped leaders earlier in the summer, with Andy Burnham replacing Keir Starmer as the country's prime minister and in doing so, restoring some of the ruling party's popularity.

Farage is eyeing the top position after Reform managed to chalk up significant success at May local elections, prior to Starmer's departure.