Reform UK has cleared itself and two close aides of Nigel Farage of any wrongdoing alleged in an undercover investigation.
A 27-page report commissioned by Reform has concluded Dan Jukes and James Orr did not break any laws and the party was cleared of wrongdoing over the funding of opinion polls, the Telegraph reports.
Reform has said it now intends to take “aggressive legal action” against Verbatim.
Investigations from the Metropolitan Police and the British Polling Council into the allegations made in the documentary are still underway.
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Last month, an undercover sting broadcast by Channel 4 showed senior Reform figures seemingly willing to look for ways to circumvent electoral law to allow a foreign backer to fund the party with a £500,000 donation.
Farage and his senior aide Jukes were filmed discussing the possibility of the donation with an actor posing as a wealthy American businessman as part of the operation carried out by undercover reporters from Verbatim.
The investigation alleged that Jukes had been willing to try and accept the foreign donation, which would have broken political donation rules.
Meanwhile, Reform’s then-head of policy James Orr was recorded seemingly organising for the businessman’s son to help fund the commissioning of polls for the party. These polls supported policy lines Reform were pursuing but when they appeared in the media there was nothing to say they had been commissioned by the party.
Jukes and Orr resigned from their positions following the investigation’s broadcast, with Reform denying any wrongdoing but launching an internal investigation into matters.
That investigation has now cleared Jukes, Orr and the party of any wrongdoing.
A 27-page report said no evidence had been found that Jukes or Orr “knowingly entered into or acted in furtherance of an arrangement to facilitate an impermissible donation.”
It concludes that both men “understood the polling arrangements to be lawful” and that “any donation would be subject to the party’s checks.”
Whilst the report “does not excuse” the “foolish” way in which Jukes and Orr acted by discussing donations and polling, it has found that “neither did anything that constitutes a breach of the law.”
In terms of clearing the party of wrongdoing regarding the funding of the polls, the report argued Jukes had been a “contractor” as opposed to someone at the heart of the party.
It states: “Reform UK did not commission any of the three opinion polls. It did not contract for them, was not quoted for them, was not invoiced for them and made no payment for them. It holds no record of any of those things.
“The polls were commissioned by Mr Jukes, a contractor with several clients other than Reform and an independent commercial relationship with the polling company, on his own account and at his own risk.”
Reform’s report was carried out by Adam Richardson, Reform’s barrister, and Tom Waterhouse, the party’s general secretary.