Cambridge University has launched a probe into associate professor James Orr after he stepped down as Reform UK's head of policy over claims he arranged for polling to be paid for by an overseas company, an impermissible donor under UK electoral law. The allegations, part of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 and Verbatim, broke as Reform's annual conference opened in Birmingham, prompting Orr and long-serving Farage aide Dan Jukes to step down and triggering an internal party investigation.

Orr, an associate professor of Philosophy of Religion at Cambridge's Faculty of Divinity, has previously courted controversy for views shaped by Christian nationalism, including opposing same-sex marriage and criticising abortion law, as well as calling for a UK equivalent of the US immigration enforcement agency ICE. Jukes denies wrongdoing and calls it entrapment, while Nigel Farage insists nothing illegal occurred, dismissing incriminating footage as "loose pub talk". Rival parties have reported Reform to police over claims it took foreign funding worth £32,500 for three polls, and while chairman Lee Anderson says there is "no chance" of either man returning, deputy leader Richard Tice has struck a more cautious tone pending the investigation's outcome.