Nigel Farage and senior figures in Reform UK were filmed by undercover reporters discussing secretly funded polling and a proposed disguised donation to the party, according to an investigation published by Channel 4 News in collaboration with Verbatim, a group of investigative journalists founded by former Centre for Climate Reporting staff. Channel 4 News reported that the footage was gathered by Verbatim and independently verified by its own journalists before publication.
Polls funded through a US company
Channel 4 News and Verbatim reported that James Orr, Reform UK's head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a close aide to Farage, arranged earlier this year for a US-registered company to fund three opinion polls commissioned by the party. The three polls cost £32,500 in total, according to the investigation, and their results were reported in national newspapers without disclosure that Reform UK had commissioned them or that a hidden backer was funding them. The company making the payments was controlled by Verbatim as part of the undercover operation, posing as a wealthy American donor and his UK-based son.
At a meeting in Farage's Clacton constituency in late July, after the polls had already been published, Farage met the undercover reporters believing them to be the donors behind the funding. He called the polling "amazing" and told them, according to Channel 4 News, "It worked. Boom."
A proposed larger donation
The investigation reported that discussions later turned to a further donation, understood to be worth £500,000, structured so that the UK-based "son" would appear as the formal donor even though the funds would originate from his US-based "father." Such an arrangement would breach UK electoral law, which does not permit donations from foreign, non-UK-based sources. Channel 4 News reported that Orr had proposed a similar structure at an earlier meeting, telling the undercover reporter, "the reality is we could easily get away with it," and describing the Electoral Commission as "completely useless."
Jukes, in a separate meeting cited by the investigation, described the arrangement as "Those little clandestine projects are so valuable."
Legal thresholds and disclosure rules
Under UK electoral law, any donation from an impermissible source must be reported to the Electoral Commission within 30 days and returned to the donor. Legitimate donations worth more than £11,180 in a calendar year must also be declared. According to Channel 4 News, none of the polling payments identified in the investigation appear to have been disclosed to the Electoral Commission by Reform UK, despite most relevant deadlines having passed.
Bob Posner, a lawyer and former chief executive of the Electoral Commission, reviewed the investigation's findings and told Channel 4 News that Farage faced "quite difficult questions to answer" over his apparent awareness of the arrangement. Posner said the conduct described amounted to "these are serious criminal offences." The Electoral Commission told Channel 4 News that any potential evasion of donation controls was "for the police to consider."
Newspapers and pollster respond
Two of the three polls were commissioned through JL Partners and published by the Telegraph and the Times without reference to Reform UK's involvement, according to the investigation. A spokesperson for JL Partners told Channel 4 News that while there was no concern about the accuracy of its work, the findings had exposed "weaknesses in our procedures," which the firm said it was reviewing. Telegraph Media Group said it was "reviewing" its relationship with the pollster, telling Channel 4 News it believed it had been misled and had suspended the relevant articles pending a review by the British Polling Council. The Times said it was not informed of Reform UK's role in commissioning its poll. The British Polling Council told the investigation there "may have been deliberate breaches" of its disclosure rules.
Reform UK's response
Reform UK, Farage, Jukes and Orr did not respond directly to Channel 4 News' questions but are understood to deny the allegations in full, according to the investigation. The proposed £500,000 donation was never made. Farage was fighting a by-election at the time of the meeting with undercover reporters, having resigned earlier in the month amid separate scrutiny of his party's finances; he was re-elected the following month.
Farage also faces separate, ongoing scrutiny from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, which is examining whether he should have declared £5 million received from cryptocurrency businessman Christopher Harborne in 2024, which Farage has said was an unconditional gift for personal security. The Commissioner is also examining undeclared benefits from George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster and longtime Farage associate, which Farage has said predate his election as an MP and were unrelated to politics.
Source: Channel 4 News, Verbatim
