Elizabeth Baruah
Author of the Right Angles Newsletter on Politics UKIt’s been a busy September for Reform UK scrutiny: conference, scandal, and lots of drama. Nigel Farage’s popularity has reached a new low, with 69% of respondents to a YouGov poll saying they viewed him unfavourably. The party has suffered too, with the lowest rating they’ve had in two years.
Documentary
The month kicked off with Reform’s annual conference held in Birmingham from the 3rd to the 5th. Starting off with Business Day, the party hosted senior figures from different industries -including those from Fuel Industries UK, Google, and Tiktok.
However, during that evening Channel 4 released a new documentary with Verbatim: “Going undercover to expose Reform’s secret donations plot”, where a group of investigative journalists with links to the Centre for Climate Reporting went undercover as the UK-based son of a wealthy US-based businessman, wanting to donate to the party. As per the law, it is forbidden for foreign individuals to give political donations to a British party. As seen in the documentary, (now former) Director of Communications for Reform Dan Jukes, suggests that the businessman gives his £500,000 by sending it through his UK-based son. This would be illegal.
The Channel 4 documentary also exposed that Dan Jukes and (now former) Head of Policy and Senior Advisor James Orr commissioned three polls from US firm JLPartners -using money that was sought from the undercover journalists. Both Reform figures were close to Farage. One poll was featured on the front page of the Telegraph, under the headline “Labour would face wipeout if elections went ahead”, and another was on the front page of the Times under the headline “Reform vote on unions at the same level as Labour”. The polls were all published between January and July 2026, and none of them mentioned who had commissioned them. The Telegraph have since cut ties with JLPartners.
Nigel Farage has denied knowing anything about the illegal activities in the documentary, despite him being told on film “I’ll be the registered donor, but then Dad will send the money to me and as soon as that’s done and all of the conversations are had, the money is available.” Reform’s finances are now under investigation by the Met Police, and it has been suggested that Farage will likely be taken in for questioning. Dan Jukes and James Orr have now left the party.
Pledges
Scandals aside, Reform’s conference was a chance for senior members to unveil their pledges for if the party get to form a government. Nigel Farage revealed his ‘100 day plan’, in which he claimed he would declare a state of national emergency the day he gets into power. He added that he would make parliament work seven days a week until all legislation has passed, and sack any of his ministers who fail to follow through on their pledges within the first 100 days of a Reform government. Showing his support to Farage’s plan, Robert Jenrick then posted a mock-up resignation letter to his X account, after he made a promise to increase the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 if Reform get into power.
Suella Braverman also made a speech at the conference, where she announced Reform’s plan to fly the Union flag in every school, making the pupils sing the national anthem and hymns.
Protesters
The conference was not without turmoil, with Climate Resistance activists making their way inside. They made their mark on the event by heckling speeches, and raised a sign behind the stage during Richard Tice’s speech which read “Collect £5million, burn the planet”, featuring a Monopoly man with the face of Nigel Farage.
Farage then hesitated to go on stage for his keynote speech, informing his supporters that the police weren’t letting him go up because of a security risk. West Midlands Police later denied this, saying “We can confirm that Counter Terrorism Policing have had no involvement in the delivery of the Reform UK Party Conference 2026.”
When Farage delivered his speech, he was interrupted by heckling protesters, and a woman was then assaulted by members of the audience. The ordeal was filmed and spread across social media, with Farage’s response being “That poor young girl, she looked like she was going to do herself an injury. Boring, boring, boring”. In the video, you can see the woman being hit over the head with a walking stick and having her hair pulled.
Zia Yusuf when later questioned if he condemned the violence, said he “condemn[s] people punching people.” On the other hand, Robert Jenrick appeared in an interview on LBC saying he had “zero sympathy” for the protester, adding that he thought the man who hit her “deserves a medal”.
Donations
The next week, Reform found themselves under more financial scrutiny, after receiving a massive £72 million in donations from two men, Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne. Both British billionaires, the businessmen each sent £36 million in quick succession. First was Ben Delo -founder of BitMex who until April, lived in Hong Kong. Delo, who was convicted in the US after pleading guilty to violating the United States Bank Secrecy Act, was later pardoned by Donald Trump. He claimed that he donated the £36million to create a more “level playing field” with other, more established parties.
Christopher Harborne soon matched the donationThe crypto billionaire lives primarily in Thailand and has recently been at the centre of controversy involving Nigel Farage, after giving him a personal £5 million “gift” that Farage did not declare in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is investigating whether the gift should have been declared.
Harborne has maintained electoral registration to a UK address in Hampshire, which allows him to vote in elections and be a political donor, despite Thailand being his usual country of residence on corporate filings.
In March, the Government announced plans to change the law surrounding political donations, banning crypto donations and capping the amount overseas donors can give to £100,000 a year. In July, these plans were extended to require a that donors live in the UK for a full calendar year before they can give more than £100,000. So the £72m September donations received by Reform may be affected if the law is passed as Ben Delo only returned to the UK in April.
This has been met with criticism from Reform, who say that the laws have been introduced “retrospectively”.
So far, Reform have revealed that they plan to spend the donation money on a new Reform TV channel, which will be broadcast on YouTube. Farage recently returned to his segment on GB News, and it is uncertain what will happen with that once Reform TV begins to air.
Wales
Reform Wales have lost and gained a leader this month, after previous leader Dan Thomas resigned following his arrest for assault and controlling coercive behaviour. It was later revealed that news outlets knew about his arrest before reporting on it, because Reform had warned them that if they did, they would be breaking Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR): “The right to respect for private and family life”. Reform have previously announced that they plan to abolish the ECHR. This meant that news outlets had to wait until the police had released an official statement to break the news.
It has now been announced that Helen Jenner is the new leader of Reform Wales. Her deputy will be Laura Anne Jones, a former Conservative who was suspended less than a year ago for using a racial slur against Chinese people in a Whatsapp group.
Small Boat Watch
Announced on X, Reform have developed their own app named Small Boat Watch, where you can view the statistics on the number of channel crossings by small boat. Alternatively, this information is also displayed on the Government website. There is also a mini-game on the app, where you can play as the navy returning the boats and competing on a leaderboard to see who can send back the most.
Reform UK Scrutiny – Final Thoughts
It’s been a tough month for Reform. Story after story has demonstrated hypocrisy and if the polls are to be believed, then the public are starting to notice.
Whether it’s defending their own representatives with the ECHR, failing to protect women beaten at their own conference or actively seeking donations from international “elites”, each story mirrors a common Reform talking point.
The sum of it all is that voters are left wondering, if Reform’s leaders will abandon their rhetoric when it suits them, what are their actual values?
That is an increasingly dangerous situation for Nigel Farage’s Party as it faces the Conservatives and Restore Britain each aggressively vying for voters who were considering voting Reform at the next general election.
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Photo Credit: Nigel Farage on X