Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is facing calls for a police and Electoral Commission investigation after an undercover operation alleged that the party accepted funding ultimately originating from a US company to pay for political polling.
Channel 4 News reported that Reform received £32,500 in funding for three polls commissioned earlier this year. The purported donors were undercover reporters working for investigative group Verbatim, who posed as an American financier and his UK-based son.
Under UK electoral law, foreign companies are not permissible sources of political funding, including where money is used to pay for studies or research on behalf of a political party.
The Liberal Democrats have written to both the Metropolitan Police and the Electoral Commission, while Labour is also expected to refer the matter to the police. The Green Party has called for a formal investigation.
In a letter to the Met’s special enquiry team, Lisa Smart, the Liberal Democrats’ Cabinet Office spokeswoman, said: “I am writing to report to your unit a potential serious breach of electoral law, involving the acceptance and concealment of a donation from an impermissible donor.
“The breach raises alarming questions about whether there has been a wider complacency toward foreign interference by the individuals involved.”
Ms Smart alleged that James Orr, a senior adviser to Mr Farage, could have breached the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act by facilitating the £32,500 payment from what she described as an impermissible donor.
She continued: “The funding appears to have been channelled into political spending on behalf of Reform UK, and therefore a donation in kind, in a manner apparently structured so as to avoid the payment being recorded and reported as a donation to the Electoral Commission. This would constitute a clear breach of section 61 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.”
Reform, which is holding its annual conference in Birmingham, strongly denies wrongdoing.
The allegations come amid wider scrutiny of the funding arrangements surrounding both Mr Farage and his party.
The Reform leader is already facing a parliamentary investigation into whether he should have declared a £5mn gift from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne, which was made shortly before Mr Farage was first elected to the House of Commons in 2024.
Labour seized on the latest allegations, arguing that questions about Reform’s finances now extended to the party’s senior leadership.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour Party chairwoman, said: “This scandal goes right to the top of Reform UK. Nigel Farage needs to urgently prove today that his top team hasn’t broken the law and secretly plotted to undermine our democracy.
“It’s not just Farage’s secret £5 million ‘gift’. Time and again he and his mates think the rules don’t apply to them. The sleaze and scandal now engulfing him and his party isn’t going away – it’s getting worse.
“It’s time to stop the deflections and desperate excuses. Farage and Reform must co-operate with the authorities to establish the truth and prove just how deep this scandal goes.”
Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, also called for an investigation.
“These very serious claims should be fully investigated by the Electoral Commission and the police,” he said.
“There are millions of reasons why Nigel Farage is happy to take money from billionaires, climate science deniers and secret foreign backers, and not one of them is because he has any interest in improving people’s lives.”
Dame Emily Thornberry, chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said the allegations raised potentially serious questions under electoral law.
“It is a criminal offence to knowingly receive a donation for a political party from a foreigner with no connection to the UK,” she said.
“What has been caught on camera by Channel 4 looks to be very serious indeed. I expect the police to investigate.
“We must protect our democracy from foreign interference and keep all dodgy money out.”
Reform rejected the allegations and said it had obtained legal advice confirming that its conduct had complied with electoral law.
A Reform spokesperson said: “Reform UK has a robust vetting process for prospective donors approved by the Electoral Commission.
“We also have written KC legal opinion showing no laws have been broken.
“A private individual paid for polling to a private company, and the private company gave it to national newspapers. This would only need to be declared if it were internal polling.”
The party also attacked the methods and motivations of the undercover investigation.
“The hoaxers are ‘Verbatim Investigations’; a new company, incorporated in July 2026 in an attempt to mask their true identity: the Center for Climate Reporting (CCR). The methods of its 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.”
“The group has partnered with the publicly-owned Channel 4 in an attempt to mislead the public about the party’s donations and vetting processes.
“The same group, led by Greenpeace’s Lawrence Carter and far-left activist Louis Wilson, were busted attempting a similar hoax in the U.S. at the end of last year. This is yet another establishment attack on Reform UK.”
The dispute threatens to intensify scrutiny of Reform’s funding arrangements at a politically sensitive moment for Mr Farage, whose party has sought to present itself as an insurgent challenge to Britain’s established political parties.
The central question is likely to be whether the polling constituted political spending undertaken on Reform’s behalf and, if so, whether the ultimate source of the funding was permissible under Britain’s electoral finance rules.
Any formal investigation by the police or Electoral Commission would increase pressure on the party to provide a detailed account of the transactions and the role played by senior figures in arranging them.
For Reform, the allegations also risk creating an uncomfortable contrast with the party’s long-standing criticism of the political establishment and its claims to represent a cleaner alternative to Westminster politics. The party insists, however, that no electoral law was broken and that the latest allegations form part of a politically motivated attempt to damage Mr Farage and his party.
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