Labour asks Met police to launch criminal inquiry into Reform UK donations after undercover report – UK politics live

Good morning. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is speaking on the main day of his party’s conference in Birmingham. It has been a bad summer for the party. After having a large lead over the other parties in opinion polls for over a year, the lead collapsed after Andy Burnham became PM, and now Reform UK and Labour are basically neck and neck. Farage has been embroiled in the scandal over his failure to declare a £5m donation. And last night, on the eve of Farage’s big speech, Channel 4 News broadcast the findings of a long, undercover investigation showing leading Reform UK figures apparently plotting to evade UK law on electoral donations.

Here is Rowena Mason’s story.

Reform UK says the two senior Reform officials most implicated in the apparent plot to evade electoral law are stepping down pending an investigation. In a statement released about half an hour ago, a Reform UK spokesperson said:

Reform UK has launched an investigation following the broadcast of a Channel 4 News programme.

Both individuals involved have stepped down from their respective positions pending the outcome of the investigation.

The Labour party has written to the Metropolitan police calling for a criminal investigation. In her letter to Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, Bridget Phillipson, the Labour party chair, says:

We … believe there is a proper basis for a police investigation into whether offences under PPERA [Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000] have been committed, including, but not necessarily limited to:

(a) offences under section 61(1) concerning evasion of restrictions on donations;