‘We could easily get away with it’: Reform policy chief caught in explosive undercover footage

Senior Reform UK figures have been filmed discussing secret payments from a US company for polling commissioned by the party, in an undercover investigation which could trigger scrutiny of possible breaches of electoral law.

The investigation by Verbatim, which was independently checked and broadcast by Channel 4 News, alleges that three polls costing more than £30,000 were commissioned for Reform and paid for by an American company being used as part of the undercover operation.

None of the money entered Reform’s bank account. It was paid directly to polling company JL Partners, meaning the payments did not appear in the party’s published donation records.

Secret recordings also appear to show Dan Jukes, a close aide to Nigel Farage, suggesting a way for a wealthy American to give a much larger sum to the party through his UK-resident son.

The donor and his son were invented by the investigators, and the proposed £500,000 donation was never made.

However, Channel 4 News said both the polling arrangement and the later donation proposal were suggested by senior Reform officials rather than the undercover team.

Reform UK, Farage, Jukes and the party’s head of policy James Orr did not provide a response for the programme. Channel 4 News said they were understood to deny all the allegations in full.

The operation lasted almost a year

Verbatim’s investigation began in autumn 2025, when Reform was enjoying some of its strongest opinion polling.

An undercover journalist posed as “William Lockwood”, the British-educated son of a wealthy American businessman. The supposed father, his money and the company behind him were presented as American.

That mattered because foreign individuals and overseas companies are generally prohibited from funding UK political parties.

Under Electoral Commission rules, an individual must normally be registered on a UK electoral register to become a permissible donor.

A company must be incorporated in the UK, registered here and carrying on business in the country.

The undercover reporter developed a relationship with Orr, a Cambridge academic who later became Reform’s head of policy.

Orr reportedly told “William” that his new role would give him significant influence and that he would report directly to Farage.

The first polling proposal followed in January.

US company paid for poll commissioned by Reform

According to the footage, Reform wanted polling conducted in council areas where the government was planning to delay local elections.

The results were politically valuable to the party because they suggested Reform would perform strongly if the elections went ahead.

Orr allegedly asked whether the American company represented by the undercover reporter could pay the polling company’s invoice.

He also appeared to make clear that the funding should not be linked publicly to Reform or one of its existing donors.

“I need somebody to pay for it and it can’t be a Reform donor.”

The company used in the investigation subsequently received an invoice from JL Partners and paid it.

The resulting poll appeared prominently in The Daily Telegraph without Reform being identified to readers as the party behind it.

JL Partners still lists the January 2026 research on its published polling page, describing it as polling in areas where council elections were due to be delayed and noting that it was covered by The Telegraph.

The investigation alleges that Reform was involved in commissioning the work and remained informed about it behind the scenes.

Pollster described ‘informal rule bending’

The undercover reporter later met JL Partners co-founder James Johnson.

In the secretly recorded conversation, Johnson appeared to acknowledge that the required disclosure had not been made.

“I think there is a little bit of informal rule bending that we did with our last one.”

Johnson allegedly said Jukes had contacted him about carrying out the poll and remained his main point of contact inside Reform.

When asked whether The Telegraph knew about Reform’s involvement, he replied that it did not.

The British Polling Council requires its members to publish details of who commissioned a poll so that readers can judge its origins and possible purpose.

After examining information supplied by Channel 4 News, the council said there appeared to have been “deliberate breaches” of that rule.

There is no suggestion that the figures produced by the polls were invented or that respondents’ answers were changed.

The controversy concerns who commissioned and funded the work, along with what newspapers and the public were told about it.

Three polls worth more than £30,000

The undercover company went on to pay for two further polls allegedly arranged for Reform.

One of them examined support for political parties among trade union members. It generated a front-page story for The Times after finding Reform level with Labour on 28 per cent.

Reform promoted the findings heavily, presenting them as evidence that Farage’s party was winning over traditional Labour supporters.

The Times said it had not been told about Reform’s role in commissioning or arranging payment for that research.

By this stage, the US company had paid JL Partners more than £30,000 across three polling projects.

Jukes was filmed praising the value of the arrangement and its absence from public donation records.

“Those little clandestine projects are so valuable.”

He also described the polling as “highly important” to Reform and said the relationship with Orr allowed the projects to be handled discreetly.

The footage appears to show the undercover reporter being introduced at a Reform reception as a donor connected to an “off-the-book project”.

Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury spokesperson and potential chancellor, attended the reception. There is no suggestion that he knew about or participated in the alleged arrangements.

‘We could easily get away with it’

Orr was also recorded discussing whether similar projects could be discovered by the authorities.

In one of the most damaging passages, he appeared to suggest there was little chance of that happening.

“The reality is we could easily get away with it.”

He described the Electoral Commission as ineffective and referred to possible violations as “technical breaches”.

Channel 4 News showed the recordings to a specialist in party-funding law.

The expert said it would be for the authorities to determine whether any law had been broken, but described the material as serious enough to merit examination by the police and Crown Prosecution Service.

The legal question is whether the polling represented a benefit provided to Reform.

Electoral Commission guidance says a political donation can include money, goods or services supplied to a party free of charge or on non-commercial terms.

If Reform commissioned work which was then paid for by an impermissible foreign source, the payment could potentially be treated as a donation to the party even though the money went directly to JL Partners.

That conclusion would have to be reached by the relevant authorities following an investigation. No court has found Reform, Orr, Jukes or Farage guilty of any offence arising from the footage.

A proposed £500,000 donation

The undercover team then offered the possibility of much more money.

The fictional American father was said to be interested in making a significant donation to Reform. As a US resident who was not registered to vote in Britain, he would not have been permitted to donate directly.

Jukes allegedly proposed that the father transfer the money to his UK-resident son, who could then make the donation in his own name.

A donation made by one person using money supplied by an impermissible foreign donor for that purpose would be unlawful.

The most serious part of the recording comes when Jukes appears to claim that other foreign donors had used relatives in this way before.

“They donate through their kids.”

The undercover reporter was asked how much money might be available and suggested an initial figure of £500,000.

No such donation was made because neither the donor nor his son was real. The conversation nevertheless raises questions about what was being proposed and Jukes’s apparent claim that the method had previously been used.

The meeting with Nigel Farage

The investigation eventually arranged a meeting with Farage in Clacton.

An American actor was hired to play the wealthy father, while the undercover reporter continued posing as his son.

During the meeting, the supposed donor told Farage that his American family office had been unable to donate directly to Reform but had paid for the polls commissioned by the party.

Farage responded positively, describing the polling as “great” and “amazing”.

The men then explained the proposed arrangement for the larger donation. The father would transfer the money to his son, who would appear on the official register as the donor.

Farage replied:

“Thank you. Both of you, thank you.”

The footage does not show Farage discussing the legality of the plan or personally explaining how the money should be routed.

It does show him being told that the funding would originate with the American father and that the son’s name would appear on the register.

Earlier in the operation, Orr had claimed that Farage did not know about the polling arrangement and would prefer not to know. Shortly before the Clacton meeting, however, he allegedly told the undercover team that Farage was aware of their support but not the details.

Jukes later contacted the supposed donors to discuss how part of the promised £500,000 could be spent, including on checks into prospective Reform candidates.

Again, no donation was ultimately made.

Newspapers suspend stories as pollster admits failings

JL Partners said the investigation had not raised concerns about the accuracy of its polling.

It did, however, acknowledge “weaknesses in our procedures” and said it was reviewing them to remove ambiguities and strengthen safeguards.

The Telegraph said it believed it had been misled and was reviewing its future relationship with the company.

The newspaper suspended the affected articles as a precaution while the British Polling Council examined what happened.

The Times also made clear that it had not known Reform was involved in commissioning and arranging payment for the union poll.

The disclosures create problems beyond the question of party donations. Newspapers regularly report polling conducted by outside companies, but readers need to know who paid for the research and who helped shape the questions.

A poll commissioned by a political party is not automatically inaccurate. Its source is still highly relevant information which should be disclosed.

Pressure for a formal investigation

The latest allegations arrive during an already difficult period for Farage and Reform.

The parliamentary commissioner for standards is investigating Farage’s failure to declare a separate £5 million gift from businessman Christopher Harborne. Farage insists he has broken no rules and has described scrutiny of his finances as an establishment campaign against him.

Reform has also been criticised for barring journalists who have investigated the party from its conference in Birmingham.

The Channel 4 investigation is potentially more serious because it involves senior party officials apparently discussing ways to keep funding away from public records.

Authorities will now face pressure to establish whether the poll payments amounted to undeclared impermissible donations and whether any offence was committed.

They may also be asked to investigate Jukes’s apparent claim that overseas donors had previously channelled money through their children.

The undercover operation does not provide the final legal verdict. It does, however, leave Reform with detailed questions that cannot be answered simply by dismissing the investigation.

Who commissioned the three polls? Why did a US company pay the invoices? Why was Reform’s involvement kept from newspapers and readers? And what did Jukes mean when he claimed foreign donors had used their children before?

Reform has so far offered no public explanation beyond denying the allegations.