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Reform UK could have breached political donation rules by having polling paid for by an overseas company, it is understood.

Nigel Farage’s party took funding from a fake American firm for three polls it commissioned earlier this year costing £32,500, Channel 4 News reported.

But the donors were in fact undercover reporters from investigative group Verbatim posing as an American financier and his UK-based son ‘William’.

The US company that made the poll payments and the supposed American financier, resident in the US, are not permissible donors under electoral law.

In a meeting over oysters and wine in Clacton, Farage met with the fake father and son undercover team after the poll results appeared on the front of major newspapers.

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‘Labour would face wipeout if elections went ahead’ and ‘Two thirds of voters want Starmer out’ were published in The Telegraph raising interest in Reform before the May elections.

While The Times published a poll ‘Reform vote in unions at same level as Labour’.

Farage said the polling was ‘amazing’ and provided ‘bang for buck,’ adding: ‘It worked. Boom.’

Foreign companies are not a permissible source of funding for parties, including for payments for studies and research, under electoral law.

The revelations by Channel 4 and Verbatim come amid ongoing scrutiny on funding both Mr Farage and his party have received.

The Reform leader faces a parliamentary investigation into whether he should have declared a £5 million gift from the crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne given shortly before he was first elected to the Commons in 2024.

Labour intends to report the latest claims Reform may have broken party funding laws to the police.

Reform denies any wrongdoing.

Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said: ‘This scandal goes right to the top of Reform UK. Nigel Farage needs to urgently prove today that his top team haven’t broken the law and secretly plotted to undermine our democracy.

‘It’s not just Farage’s secret £5 million ‘gift’. Time and again he and his mates think the rules don’t apply to them. The sleaze and scandal now engulfing him and his party isn’t going away – it’s getting worse.

‘It’s time to stop the deflections and desperate excuses. Farage and Reform must co-operate with the authorities to establish the truth and prove just how deep this scandal goes.’

Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart said: ‘Farage has always behaved as though the rules apply to everyone but him. These new allegations against Reform look like the latest example and must be dealt with swiftly by the authorities.’

Reform said it had ‘been the target of a hoax perpetuated by foreign-funded, climate change activists posing as would-be party donors.

‘The party denies any wrongdoing.

‘Reform UK has a robust vetting process for prospective donors approved by the Electoral Commission.’

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