The barrister who conducted Reform UK’s inquiry into whether Nigel Farage’s aides and the party broke the law in regards to impermissible donations is a former UKIP candidate who has a long-standing association with Farage.
This week, Reform published a 27-page report of an internal inquiry finding that Dan Jukes, Farage’s press adviser, and James Orr, the party’s head of policy, had not breached funding rules over foreign donations.
An undercover sting carried out by reporting group Verbatim and broadcast by Channel 4 last month had filmed both men seemingly willing to look for ways to circumvent electoral law to allow a foreign backer to donate to the party.
This involved a wealthy US donor paying a total of more than £30,000 for three polls to be commissioned producing results that would be favourable for Reform, and a conversation with the donor exploring whether how he could give £500,000 to the party through his UK-based son.
The donor and his son were both undercover reporters.
Jukes and Orr were suspended from the party and Reform launched an internal inquiry into the matter, carried out by the party’s legal secretary, Adam Richardson, and Tom Waterhouse, its general secretary.
This report cleared Jukes, Orr and the party of any allegations of breaking electoral law.
Following the publication of the report, Labour labelled it a ‘whitewash’, considering who it was carried out by.
Adam Richardson has an interesting history. The qualified barrister from 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square chambers became a member of UKIP in 2014, going on to work as its party secretary and general secretary, Cumbria Crack reports.
He then stood as north-west England UKIP candidate in the 2019 European elections.
Richardson’s legal work has seen him work on Brexit related cases, arguing that Parliament did not need to have a vote on whether to trigger Article 50 after the referendum.
He has also acted for Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Reform mayor Andrea Jenkyns in cases.
Since becoming Reform’s barrister, he has been accused of using ‘bullying’ tactics. Richardson threatened Nation.Cymru with legal action over a story involving a Reform Senedd member and the Guardian reported a similar thing following their publication of claims made about Farage by multiple school contemporaries of his at Dulwich College.
Richardson and Waterhouse’s 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.”
The report said: “Nothing was agreed, no donations were made and no formal position was presented to the party’s finance team, and nothing was accepted. The party’s procedures for checking the identity of a donor and the source of funds were never engaged, because nothing reached them.”
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.
This meant “the payments made to JL Partners were therefore not donations to Reform UK within the meaning of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000”.
“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,” it said.
Investigations from the Metropolitan Police and the British Polling Council into the allegations made in the documentary are still underway.
Reform has said it will now take legal action against Verbatim for its investigation.
A party spokesperson said: “Following the allegations raised by Verbatim Investigations and Channel 4 on 3 September, Reform UK commissioned a comprehensive internal investigation.
“The investigation examined all relevant evidence, including witness interviews, documentary records and electronic communications.
“Having concluded the review, the investigation found no evidence that any laws were broken. Reform UK takes its obligations on governance and conduct extremely seriously.
“We consider that the production company – Verbatim – acted unlawfully and will be taking the appropriate legal action in due course.”
