Nigel Farage has been forced to deny he is ‘laughing’ off an alleged dodgy donations scandal that saw two senior Reform figures step down from their posts
Nigel Farage has been forced to deny he is “laughing” off an alleged dodgy donations scandal that saw two senior Reform figures step down from their posts.
The Reform UK leader gave a hearty laugh as he said Reform had “a few little local difficulties” during its annual conference.
During the three-day gathering in Birmingham, which came to an end on Saturday, long-standing aide Dan Jukes and policy chief James Orr left their posts after an undercover sting appeared to show the pair discussing how to disguise donations from foreign donors. Scotland Yard has said it is assessing reports that senior figures sought to evade electoral law over donations.
In an interview with the BBC, Mr Farage laughed after he said: “It’s a big conference, energetic conference. We had a bad start with a few little local difficulties.” BBC host Laura Kuenssberg snapped back: “It’s a bit more than a few little local difficulties, isn’t it? You’ve lost two of your most senior people. You can’t just laugh it off.”
He replied: “I’m not laughing it off. You lose people in life, in business, in politics. It happens for all sorts of reasons.” It followed him claiming he “wasn’t listening” during the meeting that sparked the party’s donor drama, as well as dismissing it as “loose pub talk”.
During the interview, Mr Farage was torn apart after moaning that questions being asked about Reform’s finances are a “tactic” used against the party. He was asked what “evidence” he has that Reform is being unfairly treated and it was pointed out that those in power all undergo intense scrutiny, such as Keir Starmer facing questions about a field for donkeys that he bought for his parents in 1996 or Zack Polanski being scrutinised over whether he should have paid council tax on a house boat.
But Mr Farage said other politicians have not faced “an attempt to wipe them out of society” and referred to claims of Reform politicians being “debanked”. A probe in 2023 criticised NatWest Group’s decision to shut down Mr Farage’s bank account.
He added: “There is no doubt there is huge political prejudice against Reform right across the corporate world and right across the establishment. And that is a simple fact of life. And why? Because we’re the disruptors and that’s the way it works.”
Asked about the investigation into a £5million gift he received shortly before the 2024 general election, Mr Farage complained: “We will be investigated every week between now and the next election. That is the tactic that is being used against us.”
Told there appeared to be a pattern of serious questions about how Reform handles its finance, the Clacton MP said Britain is a “complainant society”, adding: “It will never end. This has been a deliberate attempt to do this to us. If we get things wrong, if we make mistakes and do things that are wrong, I will hold my hands up and admit that. But frankly, the other things that have been talked about, I don’t believe we have any guilt at all. None whatsoever. Absolutely none.”
Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury spokesman, on Sunday said “lessons need to be learnt” from the donations row. The Tory turncoat said: “We’re going to investigate exactly what happened. It’s right to have due process. But this is not the way that Reform conducts itself. Like any political party, we seek to abide by the law at all times, and we believe we have in this case.
“In fact, I’ve reviewed the legal advice from the KC who’s advised the party in the last 48 hours, and it shows that, yeah, we did. But do we want to be the best version of ourselves. Yes, absolutely. And no doubt there will be lessons to be learnt from this. But we do have a strong compliance department and in fact we turn away donations all the time from people who are impermissible.”
Labour chair Bridget Phillipson said: “Nigel Farage will blame anyone apart from himself. Sooner or later he needs to wake up and realise the buck stops with him. It’s time he stopped the desperate deflection tactics and took responsibility for the many scandals he and Reform are now drowning in.
“Reform wanted the past few days to show Farage was ready to be Prime Minister. In reality they’ve exposed how completely unfit he is for office.
“While Reform is consumed by chaos and scandal, Andy Burnham is focused on what matters: easing the cost of living and driving growth in every postcode across Britain.”