Farage aide filmed in undercover footage discussing £500,000 foreign donation

Reform calls footage a hoax; Metropolitan Police assessing reports

The undercover filming, carried out by a group called Verbatim Investigations and broadcast by Channel 4 News on Thursday, shows Dan Jukes — a senior aide to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage — meeting with a man posing as the British-based son of a wealthy American businessman. The footage captured Jukes outside a Westminster pub responding to the reporter’s concern that his father would not be able to donate directly under UK electoral law. “You do realise that you can do it?” Jukes said, according to Channel 4. He continued: “Actually that does strike me as a solution,” before suggesting the donation could be registered in the UK-based son’s name even if the money came from the American father. In further exchanges, parts of which were bleeped, Jukes added: “That’s one of the ways in which we do it.”

UK electoral law requires permissible donors to political parties to be either UK registered voters or companies registered in the UK. Channel 4 said Jukes was proposing a structure in which the British son — who would qualify as a permissible donor — would receive the funds from his American father and pass them to the party.

In footage from a separate meeting, a lunch in Clacton, Essex, Farage sat with Jukes, the undercover reporter and an actor posing as the American father. According to Channel 4, after the reporter described the proposed arrangement — including prior discussions with Jukes and Reform’s head of policy James Orr — Farage responded: “it’s all above board.” When the reporter elaborated: “I’ll be the registered donor. But then dad will send the money to me, and then as soon as that’s done and all those conversations are had the money is available,” Farage is heard saying: “Thank you. Well, both of you. Thank you.”

Earlier in the filming, prior to the proposed £500,000 donation, Orr suggested to the undercover reporter that his father could instead pay for opinion polling to assist Reform’s campaigning. The initial poll, Channel 4 reported, would cost £18,000 plus VAT, with Orr suggesting the polling company could send the bill to the reporter. Channel 4 said Reform commissioned three polls in total costing £32,500, with the public not told who commissioned or funded them. Not disclosing such funding would be illegal under UK law, and accepting such foreign funding would also be illegal.

Reform UK has opened internal investigations into both Jukes and Orr, the party said. The BBC reported that Reform would not confirm whether Jukes remained a party spokesperson. Jukes was approached for comment by the BBC.

In a statement, a Reform spokesperson said the party had “been the target of a hoax perpetuated by foreign-funded, climate change activists posing as would-be party donors,” and denied any wrongdoing. The spokesperson described Verbatim Investigations as “a new company, incorporated in July 2026 in an attempt to mask their true identity: the Center for Climate Reporting (CCR).” The statement added that the methods of CCR’s founder, Lawrence Carter, “have previously been rebuked by members of the United States Congress for videos [that] appear to be substantially edited, creating an incomplete record of the conversation.”

Channel 4 News said it had verified the material it received from Verbatim Investigations and chose to broadcast it. The BBC reported that Verbatim Investigations was founded by journalists from the Centre for Climate Reporting.

An Electoral Commission spokesperson said: “The law requires political parties to report all permissible donations they accept with a value over £11,180 and all impermissible donations over £500. Information about any potential attempt to evade the controls on donations is for the police to consider.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman told the BBC: “We’re aware of media reporting on Thursday, 3 September involving political party donations and an alleged breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 relating to polling. We will assess this matter and any information provided to us.” The force has not begun an investigation, the BBC reported.