Police widen Reform UK funding inquiry. Will anyone be questioned by 9 October?
London's Metropolitan Police say the Channel 4 claims join their inquiry into Reform UK's funding. So far no arrests and no formal interviews.
What happened
The Metropolitan police said on that reports it received after a Channel 4 News undercover film about donations and polling involving Reform UK disclose potential offences, that these will be folded into its existing investigation into the party’s funding, and that detectives are seeking the broadcast footage while liaising with the Electoral Commission and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Police have widened a criminal inquiry into Reform UK’s funding. Detectives from London’s Metropolitan Police looked at reports made after a Channel 4 News undercover film shown on . They judged that there are possible offences to investigate, and added them to work the force’s special enquiry team already had under way.
The Met stressed that no one has been arrested and no one has been interviewed under caution, a formal police interview of a suspect, over the new claims. Everything in the file is treated as a possible offence under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
The inquiry it joins is older. The Met opened it in after a referral from the Electoral Commission, the elections watchdog. It looks at donations made to a party before the election and at possible offences under section 61 of the same Act.
George and Fiona Cottrell went to voluntary interviews under caution, which became public on , seventeen months after the inquiry began. Reform denies wrongdoing and says it will cooperate.
Two things stand between the film and any charge. Detectives must get the footage that was not broadcast and the notes behind it. Prosecutors then have to prove that someone knowingly acted to hide where the money came from.
That test is rarely met. Between 2011 and 2021 the Electoral Commission referred eight cases to the Met, and none led to a charge. The Commission says it is also considering its own regulatory steps alongside the police.
Sources: Guardian (2), BBC (2)
The Pattern
We looked for UK criminal inquiries into the money behind a party or campaign since 2006, confirmed in public by a police force or the National Crime Agency on a known day. We found eight. In two of them, someone was arrested or interviewed under caution within 30 days.
Show the other 6 cases
The Read
History points to nothing visible by . In six of the eight past inquiries, no one was arrested or interviewed under caution in the first month. The Met says it must first get the Channel 4 footage before it can interview anyone about it. The same force took seventeen months to reach such interviews in the part of this case it opened in .
There are reasons it could move faster, which is why the price sits at 25% and not lower. The team is already in place and has been briefed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Verbatim says it will cooperate with the police. Two named aides have left the party and have a reason to answer questions early. History would be wrong if the footage is handed over quickly and one of them goes to a voluntary interview under caution within the month.
There is also a reporting problem. Detectives can work without confirming anything in public, so the market can settle NO while the inquiry moves forward.
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