FARAGE AIDE SAYS BREXIT REWARD CLAIM BROKE PRESS OFFICE LINE

Undercover footage recorded by Verbatim shows Dan Jukes saying Nigel Farage’s description of a £5m gift as a reward for Brexit was “not the line to take from the press office”. Farage, the Reform UK leader, received the money from Christopher Harborne, described as a cryptocurrency billionaire. Jukes, a longtime close aide of Farage, made the comment to a reporter posing as a potential donor. Farage has also said the money was intended for security costs.

In a 14 May interview, Farage called the gift “completely unconditional” and said it was given “as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years”. Jukes raised the possibility of receiving a personal gift if a US limited liability company could not donate under electoral law. “I’m happy to take a £5m personal, unconditional gift, of course,” he told the reporter. Jukes later called the discussion of Farage’s explanation “a little bit awkward”.

A parliamentary watchdog is investigating whether Farage should have declared Harborne’s gift under parliamentary rules. The conversation also covered whether money from a US company could benefit Reform UK through polling funded from abroad. The polling discussed appeared to involve Reform UK officials without public attribution to the party. In the footage, Jukes also said it was “priced in” for Farage to profit from politics.