𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Executives at Channel 4 will no doubt be patting themselves on the back following their broadcast of an undercover sting on Reform. The documentary alleges a breach of political donation rules and has claimed two high-profile scalps – James Orr, Reform’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a long-standing Farage aide, have stepped down pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

The timing of the exposé – which involved the investigative group Verbatim using undercover reporters to pose as a fake American financier and his UK-based son – is unfortunate. Reform is gathered in Birmingham for its party conference, under this year’s theme: “The First 100 Days”. We have for too long been bedevilled by governments that fail to do any proper preparation for office – with Starmer being the arch example.

A Reform government will have a whole range of obstacles splayed out in front of it that must be overcome, from bending the civil service “blob” to its will, to passing legislation through a House of Lords full of opposition peers that will seek to frustrate its agenda. The Channel 4 documentary is a distraction from this vital work.

But take a step back. Is it really the unforgivable dodgy dealing that the group behind the documentary is clearly trying to make it out to be? The central allegation is that Reform figures arranged for what they believed was an overseas company to pay £32,500 for polling which party figures had a hand in commissioning and organising and that this may have breached the rules.

The footage also shows discussion of whether another larger donation from the supposed American financier could be made through his UK-based son, although the donation was never ultimately made. Farage has said the comments by Reform figures in the video were “loose pub talk”, that they weren’t authorised to act as they appeared to suggest, and that Reform itself has broken no law.

It’s good that Farage has taken swift action in initiating an investigation to get to the bottom of what’s gone on. But whatever the exact details, this is hardly the scandal of the century. The Tories have also had their run-ins with political finance law: in 2021 the Electoral Commission fined the party £17,800 after finding serious failings in its handling and reporting of a £67,802 donation from a company controlled by Lord Brownlow, including £52,802 connected to the refurbishment of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat.

So have Labour. In 2007 it emerged that property developer David Abrahams had given more than £600,000 to the party through four intermediaries rather than in his own name. Electoral law requires the true source of such donations to be declared, and the affair prompted a Met Police investigation (ultimately no charges were brought, with prosecutors concluding there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction).

This is not to excuse any breaches of the rules, if that is what turns out to have happened. But let us keep a sense of perspective. And spare me the pearl clutching from opposition parties. For even if wrongdoing is established, they are hardly strangers to controversy over political funding themselves.

The sooner we can return focus to the serious business of fixing broken Britain the better. It is our dangerous streets, spiralling debt, and uncontrolled borders that keep me up at night. Perhaps Channel 4 might like to make a documentary about some of that?

Ameer Kotecha is the CEO of the Centre for Government Reform and was formerly a senior British diplomat