Two senior Reform UK aides resign amid Channel 4 sting investigation

Reform UK announced on Friday that senior advisers Dan Jukes and James Orr had stepped down pending an independent investigation into a Channel 4 undercover operation that filmed the two discussing potentially rule-breaking funding arrangements. The resignations came after the party’s Birmingham conference, where attendees watched the footage on their phones during a business dinner.

Jukes, who has served as Nigel Farage’s communications chief for more than a decade, and Orr, a Cambridge-trained policy strategist with links to U.S. political figures, were identified in the video arranging foreign-linked funding for favourable polling and discussing “clandestine projects.”

“The party believes it is important that the investigation is allowed to proceed independently and without prejudice. No further comment will be made while the investigation is ongoing,” the party statement read.

Party insiders said the departures were seen as a “tactical retreat” to limit immediate damage to the conference, which aims to showcase Reform UK’s readiness for government. Deputy leader Richard Tice suggested the Channel 4 operation might constitute entrapment, while chief whip Lee Anderson told broadcasters that the two advisers would not return.

The scandal follows earlier allegations that Farage failed to declare large donations from cryptocurrency businessman Christopher Harborne. Farage has maintained that the party has broken no laws and denied any receipt of “dodgy money.”

“We clearly need not to create negative headlines that make it harder for people of all stripes … who don’t like stories of dodgy money and all that,” a senior party figure said.

The resignations occur as Reform UK remains close to the governing Labour Party in the polls and prepares for a high-profile joint appearance with France’s National Rally leader Jordan Bardella later in the conference.