You can get The National's Real Scottish Politics newsletter free and direct to your inbox every weekday.
POLICE are investigating Reform UK after undercover footage raised serious questions about whether electoral law had been breached – and on numerous occasions.
The contents of the excellent Verbatim reporting on Nigel Farage and some of his closest cronies have been well covered, but it’s hard to pass up a chance to go over some of its most brilliant moments.
- Dan Jukes, Farage’s now-former right-hand man, was filmed discussing ways that money originating from foreign sources could potentially be channelled to benefit Reform UK, and appeared to be listing occasions when it had happened before.
- James Orr, the party’s now-former head of policy, was seen calling the Electoral Commission “dumb” and boasting that the “reality is we could easily get away with it”.
- Farage was filmed enjoying oysters and champagne with a fake US donor. During the meeting, he praised polling alleged to have been funded through an impermissible overseas source.
- Farage was further filmed having a plan to funnel US money into Reform UK described to him (which it is understood could be a breach of the law), to which he responded: “Thank you.”
Then, to top it all off, Farage told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Saturday that he “wasn’t even listening” – an excuse so brazen that it is reminiscent of the once-Prince Andrew’s “I can’t sweat” line.
The footage was so damaging that on Sunday we saw Reform deploy the dead cat to end all dead cats in a vain attempt to distract attention from the scandal: telling one newspaper that Farage was looking to buy the infamous campervan from Peter Murrell’s embezzlement case.
The idea, reportedly, was to use the motorhome as a prop in the 2027 council elections to attack the SNP.
Whatever the merits of that proposal, drawing a link to Murrell was an interesting decision that put criminality and party finances right to the fore.
But Reform were as desperate as they were transparent, no doubt sensing the inevitable was on its way.
On Wednesday, it arrived.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed it had opened a criminal investigation into Reform UK’s finances, and on Thursday, reports said that Farage was likely to be interviewed as part of that police probe.
That, of course, is what must happen, because as Reform reminded us, there is very recent precedent for this type of investigation: Operation Branchform.
Then, we saw a blue forensics tent set up outside Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon’s home. We saw police officers raid SNP headquarters. We saw Murrell, and then the former first minister, arrested. Of course, no action was taken against the first minister, but Murrell was subsequently convicted and jailed for embezzlement.
Reform UK revelled in the SNP probe. Malcolm Offord, the party’s leader in Scotland, used the last FMQs before the summer to deliver an odd stand-up comedy set on the topic.
Farage’s party has also been very quick to demand action from law enforcement on their opponents. It was just weeks ago that they called the police on Greens leader Zack Polanski over an Instagram post featuring a man wearing a T-shirt with a guillotine on it.
They have also repeatedly decried what they call “two-tier policing” – claiming that the police handle some allegations differently to others.
Well, now is the time to give Reform what they want: a police system that treats everyone equally.
We saw how the police investigated the SNP’s finances. So, what are the chances of a blue tent going up outside chez Farage?
