44m ago
09.57 BST
Farage
admits conversations filmed undercover 'don't look good', and says he's 'not
happy'
Here are
some more lines from Nigel Farage’s interview with LBC this morning where he
gave his response to the undercover report about an apparent Reform UK plot to
evade election donations rules. (See 9.07am.)
Farage
insisted Reform UK had not broken any laws – but he admitted aides had said
things they “perhaps should not have been said” and conceded he was “not happy”
about this. He said:
The party
has broken no laws. The party has not taken any dodgy money or anything like
that whatsoever.
However,
it is a clear case of entrapment, and they worked at it for a very, very long
time, and they got a couple of our contractors to say things that perhaps
should not have been said.
And as a
result of that, you know, they have been removed this morning. And yeah, you
know, I’m not happy about it.
He
rejected the claim that the footage of him discussing a £500,000 donation with
fake father-and-son donors (see 9am) showed that he was aware of a plan to
circumvent electoral law. He said:
If you
listen to what I said, I said, is this all above board? Is this all legal? I’ve
been told it was a global family office based in London. And by the way, I was
in the middle of a Clacton by-election. I turned up to see people. I knew
nothing about them whatsoever. I meet people all the time.
He
claimed the three polls featured in the investigation were not commissioned by
Reform UK. He said:
Whilst
the poll benefited Reform, it wasn’t commissioned by Reform.
It had
nothing to do with Reform. It was an independent third party that did it. So
that’s nothing. That’s nothing. Polls are funded by overseas people every
single week. Every single week.
In fact,
the report contains footage clearly suggesting the polls were carried out at at
the behest of Reform UK.
He
suggested Labour and the Tories had a worse record on donations because they in
effect sold peerages. He said:
The
Labour Party and the Conservative Party have been selling peerages for years in
return for political donations. Political donations leading to big government
contracts.
In the
world of political funding, all sorts of things have been done over decades
that are wrong.
He said
the party had suspended two aides because their remarks “don’t look good”. He
said:
I promise
you, the polling is not even an issue. Nothing. The party has not done anything
wrong, but entrapped conversations don’t look good, and that’s why we’ve taken
the action we have.
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