Will mounting scandals sink Reform?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
From former officials jailed after taking bribes to push pro-Putin propaganda, through to local councillors being expelled for offensive tweets, and leader Nigel Farage being accused of high school racism, Reform UK is struggling to stay scandal free. Will the party be able to weather the storm? Or will the waves of allegations start to shift the polls?
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Guest: Aubrey Allegretti, chief political correspondent, The Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producer: Shabnam Grewal, Harry Stott.
Read more: Nigel Farage referred to police over Clacton campaign expenses
Further listening: Is Reform ready for power?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:10.8 | After seven failed attempts to become an MP, for Nigel Farage, it was eighth time lucky, |
| 0:17.7 | as he stood for Parliament at the last general election. |
| 0:20.6 | I promise that I will do my absolute best as a member of... time lucky as he stood for Parliament at the last general election. |
| 0:26.7 | I promise that I will do my absolute best as a member of Parliament to put Clackton on the map. This is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you. |
| 0:35.7 | Well, it's certainly done that. |
| 0:38.3 | Nigel Farage has now been referred to the police over that victory in Clacton last year. |
| 0:46.3 | Reform UK has issued a statement tonight denying breaking electoral law. |
| 0:51.3 | It follows a report in the Daily Telegraph that Nigel Farage has been reported to |
| 0:55.6 | police by a former member of his campaign team over claims he falsified election expenses. |
| 1:01.6 | At a time when the party he leads is riding high in the polls and people are even predicting a |
| 1:07.3 | reform government, Farage should be the toast of Westminster. Instead, he and the |
| 1:13.8 | leadership of reform seem to be engaged in a daily game of whack-a-mole as a string of scandals |
| 1:20.1 | threatens to derail the party. It was a fool from grace for the former MEP, Nathan Gill, |
| 1:26.8 | a phone seizure and home search revealed he was taking |
| 1:30.1 | bribes as part of a pro-Russian influence campaign. |
| 1:33.7 | Four reform councillors have lost the whip, following evidence they brought the party into disrepute. |
| 1:39.8 | Those of us who suffered his verbal abuse at school, and that, by the way, is not just anti-Semitic verbal |
| 1:45.7 | abuse. It was towards Asian kids, black British kids. I felt so embittered, enraged by the |
| 1:52.2 | denials. Have I said things 50 years ago? Bant her in a playground. You can interpret in the |
| 1:57.1 | modern light a day in some sort of way, yes. Because he did say stuff to these people, then. |
... |
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