Brown envelopes, clandestine operations and secret meetings at Claridge’s Hotel. While Reform has already had two cash scandals this year, the latest seemed to surpass the others in colour and gall, not least because one of the figures involved spoke openly, while being secretly filmed, about the John-le-Carré-esque nature of the (fake) scheme he was participating in.
On Thursday evening (3 September), as Reform UK’s annual conference in Birmingham got into full swing, Channel 4 News aired a joint investigation with the media group Verbatim that appeared to show two of the party’s most senior figures, Dan Jukes and James Orr, colluding in a plot to disguise foreign funding that would not be allowed under UK electoral law. While Nigel Farage had hoped that the first full day of conference on Friday would be dominated by news of his deal with Jordan Bardella of the French far-right party Rassemblement National (RN), it was overshadowed by the suspension of Jukes and Orr, two of his most important aides.
It comes after two previous funding fiascos this year, both of which remain unresolved. The first came in April when the Guardian revealed that Farage had received a personal gift of £5m from Christopher Harborne, a crypto billionaire based in Thailand, in the months before he became an MP. Farage failed to disclose this under the proper parliamentary procedures. The second came in July after the Sunday Times revealed that Farage had similarly failed to disclose gifts from George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster.
Reform’s immediate response to the sting was to attack the team behind the investigation, describing them as “foreign-funded climate change activists”. Verbatim Investigations, which conducted the hidden camera operation, was originally set up by journalists from the Centre for Climate Reporting. But this was a transparently insufficient defence of Juke’s and Orr’s behaviour, since they were acting on the basis that the foreign money involved was real and spoke freely about methods of concealing this from the public record.
By breakfast on Friday, Jukes and Orr had both been suspended by the party pending an investigation. Lee Anderson, the party’s chairman, went so far as to say there was “no chance” they would be allowed back. The start of the conference’s main stage programme was delayed for an hour on Friday as the chaos unfolded, though a senior party figure told the NS this was because the queue of members trying to enter was too long and the party wanted to make sure all delegates could attend the opening memorial session for the late Reform politician Ann Widdecombe.
It is worth emphasising how much of a blow it will be for Farage to lose these two figures. Jukes is a key member of his inner circle, serving as his senior adviser. When he said on camera during the sting that he would, if Farage entered No 10, become the chief of staff to the prime minister, this was no empty boast. Orr meanwhile was considered a major scalp when he joined as a senior policy adviser in 2025. As a theology professor at Cambridge University, he adds a sheen of establishment credibility to the party, which is still relatively young, while his wide range of contacts in the global network of right-wing radicals, from “sovereign democrats” to “national conservatives”, has proved useful.
Jukes has worked for Farage since he was a teenager, and has been with the Reform leader through many trials as well as some triumphs. But it has been noted by Reform figures that that the suspension of Jukes and Orr suggests Farage is taking this story more seriously than previous scandals. When the Sunday Times investigation into Cottrell broke, he was not publicly purged in the way that Jukes has been. In fact, Farage defended his old friend and told the Spectator at the time: “I don’t dump trusted friends unless they betray me – it’s as simple as that.” Jukes is one of the only friends in the party Farage trusts as much as Cottrell and yet the response in his case was far more brutal. For example, Farage’s description on Friday morning of Jukes and Orr as “contractors” is likely to have stung.
However this language may just be an attempt to distance Reform UK from their activities and from the consequences of the Electoral Commission investigation that has been opened on the affair. There is already speculation among Reformers that Jukes could carry on his role in an unofficial capacity, so essential is he considered to be in running Farage’s political operation. The team around Farage have likened his schedule in recent years as similar to that of a US president, combining high level meetings and overseas travel with regular campaigning. He could not do this without Jukes.
One senior Reform figure told the NS: “He will be put in the deep-freeze for a bit until the time is right but he’ll be back. It’s a storm in a teacup and Dan just overstepped the mark with the language he used. It will turn out to be perfectly legal.” At a fringe event on Friday morning Danny Kruger, a Reform MP who worked closely with Orr on the party’s policy-making process, said of the revelations: “There’s nothing to be said.” He then described the Channel 4/Verbatim investigation as “a highly partisan, activist operation in collusion with a broadcaster that, again, is very hostile to Reform”.
But extraordinarily, I have heard from some Reform delegates here in Birmingham who are thinking freely about a party after Farage given the recent wave of scandal. “I love Nigel and he’s a key part of the jigsaw but Reform is on a roll with or without him. The lefties can get Nigel but they can’t stop Reform,” said one. Zia Yusuf, Farage’s irrepressible colleague, chose Friday afternoon to release a high-quality video essay about his life, backstory and political beliefs. Tim Montgomerie, who was a senior Reform figure until his criticism of Yusuf and the party’s approach to management led to a suspension last month, said of the video: “The sooner Nigel Farage realises this man is running to replace him as leader, the better.”
The conference goes on and the party faithful remain undeterred. If we were to speculatively assess the electoral impact of the sting, at this early stage and without hard evidence, it is more likely to confirm the negative opinion of Farage and Reform held by about half of the population and encourage them to vote tactically in any election in order to stop Reform. The faithful meanwhile will hold fast to their view that he is the victim of “establishment” dirty tricks (the sting has already been likened to “entrapment”).
But how has it affected the conference when judged on Reform’s own terms? Well, the major thrust of this conference was to consolidate the party’s credibility as a future government. That was demonstrated by the much increased commercial and corporate presence this year, and the fact that Thursday was set aside as a dedicated “business day”. One business delegate with years-long experience attending Conservative conferences described the unfolding events to me as a “shambles” and a sign of “an amateur operation”. Just one voice among many, but this is not the conference opening Farage and his team were hoping for.
[Further reading: Who will win the Holborn & St Pancras by-election?]
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Subscribe here to commentIt was inevitable that Zack would take the first opportunity to enter the Commons. It will be a tough call as it will appeal to all Labour supporters to vote Labour despite wanting Zack in the Commons to hold Labour’s feet to the fire.He will need to start shedding his opposition to NATO and to Nuclear Power as they are both part of modern politics.