Nigel Farage has claimed Reform UK would have returned a £500,000 donation that is now at the centre of a foreign funding row, after undercover Channel 4 footage showed him being told the money would come via the US in an apparent breach of the ban on foreign political donations. The affair matters because it has prompted calls for police and the Electoral Commission to investigate, and has already cost two senior Reform figures their jobs, raising questions about compliance and oversight within a party seeking to present itself as a credible party of government.

Farage told the BBC that any non-compliant donation would have been sent straight back, and insisted he had not been paying close attention when the arrangement was discussed over lunch in Clacton, saying "I am not a compliance officer." He sacked aide Dan Jukes and policy chief James Orr on Friday over the recordings, while ministers including Jonathan Reynolds and shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith said he could not absolve himself of responsibility. Separately, Robert Jenrick dismissed as "boohoo" footage of a protester being dragged by her hair and struck with a walking stick at Reform's Birmingham conference, prompting West Midlands Police to appeal for her to come forward, while Zia Yusuf condemned those involved and Lee Anderson said the party would hold a "whip round" for the man who hit her.