A Reform UK councillor was openly mocked by fellow Newsnight panellists after defending the party’s own internal investigation into allegations surrounding foreign donations and insisting it had found that no laws were broken.
Jaymey McIvor appeared on the BBC programme after Reform published a 27-page report into the conduct of two senior figures caught up in last month’s Channel 4 undercover investigation. The party’s review concluded that neither Reform nor the officials involved had breached electoral law, although it also criticised aspects of their conduct and identified weaknesses in the party’s internal processes.
That distinction quickly became the centre of a very uncomfortable Newsnight exchange.
When McIvor said the investigation had established that “no laws were broken”, broadcaster Richard Bacon shot back:
“According to your mates!”
Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson also joined in, joking:
“My mum says I’ve done nothing wrong!”
The exchange left McIvor trying to defend the credibility of an inquiry commissioned by Reform itself while several other panellists laughed and talked over him.
Reform says its report cleared the party
The row goes back to an undercover investigation broadcast by Channel 4 News in September, involving investigative group Verbatim.
The footage raised questions over two separate issues. One concerned three opinion polls that appeared helpful to Reform and were funded by a US source. The second involved discussions around a proposed £500,000 donation from a foreign donor, potentially routed through a UK-based relative.
Reform launched its own internal review, which was carried out by people connected to the party rather than an independent external body. The report concluded that no illegal donation had been accepted and that Reform itself had not commissioned the US-funded polling. It said Dan Jukes had commissioned the polling personally rather than on behalf of the party.
The inquiry therefore found no evidence that electoral law had been broken.
But the same report was not entirely flattering to those involved. It said senior figures had made statements that were “wrong, careless and in one instance untrue”, while Reform also announced changes to donor checks, polling arrangements and internal compliance procedures.
That left critics arguing that Reform was presenting the report as a clean bill of health even though its own findings acknowledged significant failures.
‘According to your mates’
That was essentially the argument Richard Bacon made on Newsnight.
McIvor insisted the report had been thorough and said the party had examined documents, communications and witness evidence before reaching its conclusions. Reform has also argued that its general secretary and legal advisers brought professional expertise to the process.
But the fact that Reform had commissioned and conducted the review itself was always going to make that defence difficult.
When McIvor repeated that no laws had been broken, Bacon responded with the line that quickly went viral:
“According to your mates!”
Davidson then compared the situation to someone being cleared by their own family, saying:
“My mum says I’ve done nothing wrong!”
Green Party figure Rachel Millward also challenged McIvor as the discussion descended into overlapping laughter and interruptions.
The point being made by the other panellists was straightforward. Reform was entitled to conduct its own review and publish its own conclusions, but it could not treat that internal process as equivalent to an independent police or regulatory investigation.
The police investigation is still going
That is particularly important because the Metropolitan Police investigation into the underlying allegations has not ended.
The Met began examining potential offences under electoral law after the Channel 4 broadcast, and that work is continuing independently of Reform’s internal report.
The British Polling Council has also been examining questions around the disclosure of who commissioned the polling.
So while Reform can say that its own review found no evidence of wrongdoing, it does not have the final say on whether the law was broken.
That will depend on the conclusions reached by the police and any other relevant regulators.
Reform has denied wrongdoing throughout and has said it intends to pursue legal action against Verbatim, accusing the investigative group of unlawful conduct. Channel 4 and Verbatim have defended their reporting.
The report still criticised Reform’s own processes
One of the stranger aspects of the row is that Reform’s own report did not simply say everything had been handled perfectly.
It accepted that mistakes had been made and that the party needed stronger governance around donors, contractors, polling and compliance.
That is why the “Reform investigated Reform and found Reform innocent” line, while obviously simplified for television, landed so easily.
The actual finding was more nuanced. The report said no law had been broken, but it also concluded that the conduct of senior figures had been sufficiently poor to justify internal reforms.
Jukes and James Orr, Reform’s former head of policy, had already stood down following the undercover footage. Their futures with the party remain uncertain while other investigations continue.
The Newsnight appearance became its own story
The television exchange quickly spread online, with several viewers describing it as a “car crash” and arguing that McIvor had done little to strengthen Reform’s case.
@WillCalverleyUK wrote:
“This is such a car crash.
The jokes literally write themselves.”
@RuthDavidsonPC’s line also drew attention, with @Mullers1993 writing:
“Howling at @RuthDavidsonPC ‘my mum says I’ve done nothing wrong!’ 🤣🤣🤣”
@AndrewJOckendon added:
“I have heard some BS in my time from @McivorJaymey but this is hilarious. ‘I wasn’t speeding officer my mums says so’”
And @scsimoncrow wrote:
“He should appear on TV more. He shreds Reforms reputation with every visit. Keep up the good work.”
Those posts were among a number collected after the Newsnight clip began circulating.
Farage has a separate standards problem of his own
The argument over Reform’s internal investigation comes at an awkward moment because Nigel Farage is also facing a completely separate parliamentary standards inquiry over the £5m personal gift he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.
That case is unrelated to the Channel 4 sting, but the two stories are increasingly being discussed together because both involve questions about Reform, money and transparency.
Farage maintains that the £5m was a private gift and did not need to be declared under Commons rules. He has not been found to have broken any rules, and the parliamentary investigation is ongoing.
The wider effect is that Reform now finds itself spending increasing amounts of time answering questions about how it is funded, who pays for political activity associated with the party and how robust its internal controls really are.
Its own report may have concluded that no laws were broken in this particular case.
Newsnight’s other panellists were clearly not prepared to treat that as the end of the matter.
Leave a Reply