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<\/p>\nBritish police say they will carry out a criminal investigation into the populist Reform UK party following allegations made in a documentary that officials planned to break electoral law on foreign funding.<\/p>\n
Reform, led by veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, denied any wrongdoing and a spokesman for the party said it would “fully cooperate” with the investigation.<\/p>\n
London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement its detectives had assessed a number of “reports relating to donations and polling involving a political party” and had decided “there are potential offences requiring investigation”.<\/p>\n
“The potential offences are similar in nature to matters already under investigation by the Met’s Special Enquiry Team relating to donations made to the same political party. As a result, these matters will form part of that ongoing investigation.”<\/p>\n
Hours before widening the investigation, the police announced they were going to be investigating allegations of breached donation rules.<\/p>\n
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Reform UK party leader and MP for Clacton, Nigel Farage, was captured on camera as part of a sting into donations to the party. (Reuters: Temilade Adelaja)<\/p>\n
Documentary alleges electoral law breaches<\/p>\n
The undercover investigation, broadcast by Channel 4 during Reform’s annual conference, was conducted by investigative group Verbatim, which said it spent a year speaking to officials in Reform about possible donations.<\/p>\n
It made several allegations including that the party had broken electoral law by arranging for a foreign donor to pay for political polling.<\/p>\n
It showed two senior officials in Reform \u2014 then head of policy James Orr and Mr Farage’s former right-hand man, Dan Jukes \u2014 speaking about funding with a supposed US businessman and his British-based son, including conversations about a payment for three opinion polls commissioned by the party.<\/p>\n
Posing as wealthy donors from the United States with British connections, the undercover reporters eventually had a lunch with Mr Farage who later told the BBC he was not listening to what was said.<\/p>\n
Mr Farage, under investigation by a parliamentary watchdog about earlier donations, was forced to sack the close senior aides last week after the documentary aired.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Reform launched an internal investigation and denied the allegations, saying the party had been the victim of a hoax perpetrated by climate activists.<\/p>\n
Mr Farage described some of the comments as little more than “loose pub talk”.<\/p>\n