Reform UK's James Orr Resigns at 48 After Sting Alleges Illegal Foreign Donation Scheme
Updated
Updated · The Daily Beast · Sep 5
Reform UK's James Orr Resigns at 48 After Sting Alleges Illegal Foreign Donation Scheme
3 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · Sep 5
Summary
Channel 4 footage showed James Orr apparently agreeing to route a foreign donor’s money through a middleman and have overseas-funded polling arranged for Reform UK, prompting his resignation pending an internal investigation.
Orr, 48, denied wrongdoing, but the recording captured him saying “Nigel won’t know” and “I wouldn’t breathe a word of this to anybody” about the proposed arrangement, which would breach U.K. election law.
Dan Jukes, Reform UK’s media adviser, also stepped down after appearing in the footage with Nigel Farage, after both men had initially dismissed the allegations as a hoax by foreign-funded climate activists.
The case has drawn added attention because Orr is a Cambridge professor and longtime confidant of U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who has called him his “British Sherpa”; Vance’s office did not comment.