Nigel Farage and Reform UK are preparing to take “aggressive legal action” against the undercover journalists who tried to trap the party in a fake foreign-money deal.
The move follows an internal inquiry that cleared the party of breaking donation rules. Channel 4 broadcast the film last month, made with the investigative group Verbatim.
Reporters posed as a wealthy American and his UK-based son, “William Lockwood,” and approached senior figures about routing money that a foreign donor would not have been allowed to give directly.
On camera, aides discussed a proposed £500,000 gift via the son and a US company paying for three opinion polls costing £32,500. Farage was later filmed over oysters and wine in Clacton, told the fake donors had picked up the tab for the polls, and replied that it was “great” and that “it worked, boom.”
He has since said he was not really listening, that he is not a compliance officer, and that the whole exercise was entrapment and “loose pub talk,” not a completed deal.
No £500,000 donation was ever made. Reform’s 27-page report says nothing was agreed, nothing reached the finance team, and the party’s donor checks were never engaged.
A party source says the report has been given to police and that Reform plans to sue Verbatim and its directors this week. The futures of Dan Jukes and James Orr, who stepped down after the broadcast, are on hold until that police inquiry ends.