Nigel Farage breaks silence on Reform donations sting

Nigel Farage has told LBC that Reform has done “nothing wrong” after two party officials were caught accepting foreign donations in an undercover sting. Speaking to LBC, the Reform UK leader desperately sought to deny wrongdoing as he insisted everything was “above board". He insisted there was “nothing illegal” about his officials accepting overseas donations for three polls it commissioned earlier this year - despite rival parties have reported Reform to the police over the claims. “The party has broken no laws. The party has not taken any dodgy money or anything like that", he told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast. Senior aide to Farage Dan Jukes and Reform's Head of Policy, James Orr both left their roles over the sting aired on a Channel 4 documentary last night. Farage said: "This is a massive sting operation. It must have cost them hundreds of thousands of pounds, all foreign funded, by the way. "We talk about foreign money interfering in British politics. Well, that's exactly what this was in every way. And they worked at it and worked at it. And they managed to get a couple of our contractors to say things that look, on the face of it, injudicious." He insisted the pair had to be go because they pair became "entrapped", adding that these conversations "don't look good". “Attempts to stitch people up and sting people goes on the whole time. But we will not be distracted by it.” he told Nick. Mr Jukes was filmed meeting a man posing as the British-based son of a rich American businessman in an undercover report by Channel 4. Mr Orr was also filmed meeting an undercover reporter to discuss party funding. Mr Jukes told the undercover reporter that the donation for polling, seemingly paid to the consultancy JL Partners, was an “amazing sweet spot” that allowed the polls to be paid for without showing up in the “public records”. Mr Orr said in the film that details of the arrangement would be kept at arm’s length from Nigel Farage. He said: “I wouldn’t breathe a word of this to anybody. Nigel doesn’t know, won’t know. It’s the kind of thing he would rather not know.” Rival parties have reported Reform to the police over the claims they took funding from a US firm for three polls it commissioned earlier this year costing £32,500. But Mr Farage insisted: "There's nothing illegal in that whatsoever... Polling can be paid for by anybody provided it is put into the public domain." "Nothing has happened. No illegal transaction has occurred," he said, adding: "I've got strong KC's opinion on that, and there's plenty of precedent too. Nothing. Whilst the poll benefited Reform, it wasn't commissioned by Reform." Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp nickferrari ukpolitics LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup