An undercover investigator posing as the son of an American donor was recorded expressing concern that his father would be unable to donate directly to the party under UK electoral law.
Under electoral law, permissible donors to a UK political party must be either a UK registered voter or a UK‑registered company.
Lee Jukes appears to have suggested that the donation could be made in the UK‑based son’s name, even though the funds would originate from his American father.
James Orr, Reform’s head of policy, elsewhere suggested that the father could fund opinion‑polling work to support one of the party’s campaigns.
Nigel Farage and Lee Jukes were also filmed at a lunch in Clacton, where an actor playing a US donor was said to have offered £500,000 to Reform UK through his son.
Nigel Farage told the BBC he “frankly wasn’t listening” to the conversation about a possible donation, and Channel 4 News has reported that the payment was never effected.
He dismissed the aide’s remarks in the film as “loose pub talk”, adding that any boasts were “simply not true”.
Lee Jukes has denied any wrongdoing and said he had stepped back from politics “in order to clear my name”.
James Orr told Sky News last week that he would cooperate fully with the party’s internal investigation.
The Metropolitan Police had already been investigating whether payments made to Reform in the weeks preceding the last general election complied with donation regulations.
The investigation is also examining donations given directly to the party by Fiona Cottrell, the mother of George Cottrell, a long‑standing ally of Nigel Farage.
It is additionally scrutinising payments from a company controlled by Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, which received £1 million from Ms Cottrell in June 2024.
A spokesperson for Verbatim Investigations said the firm would cooperate with the police’s investigation.
Labour Party Chair Bridget Phillipson said that Nigel Farage “needs to wake up and realise the buck stops with him” and that Reform’s “failure to take responsibility for their actions shows just how unfit they are for office.”
Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart said that every Reform MP “urgently needs to state whether they or their campaigns have benefited from any foreign money.”
Green Party leader in England and Wales, Zack Polanski, said that Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson “hoped they could pin all this on two of their most senior advisors, but they have more questions to answer about how much they knew.”