Another Reform scandal: Is Farage finished?

**Lewis Goodall** (0:02)
This is a Global Production.

**Nigel Farage** (0:04)
The party has done nothing wrong, taken no illegal money. In fact, no money was taken at all.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:12)
I was thrilled you picked up the tab for the polls.

**Nigel Farage** (0:16)
So let me be clear about this. The polls in question were not commissioned by reform.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:21)
For the polls that you had commissioned.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:26)
And the third poll, it worked.

**Nigel Farage** (0:27)
So there is literally no issue of any kind at all around the polls. There's no money in politics. If you're straight, if you're corrupt, there's probably...

**SPEAKER_5** (0:37)
Yeah, but it's finding a straight politician.

**Nigel Farage** (0:39)
But there's no money in politics.

**Lewis Goodall** (0:42)
In about 30 minutes time, Nigel Farage is going to take to the stage, not far from where I'm standing, here in Birmingham, in this cavernous hall, which is filling and filling and filling with the Reform Party faithful, and give, or at least this is a billing, the speech of his life.
And yet, in a sense, it doesn't really matter what Farage will say. The bigger question is what can he say?
What can he possibly say to convince the British public that this party, this people's army, isn't simply dogged by corruption? In the last 24 hours, he has lost two of his closest aides in yet another party finance scandal. So, a different question. This one, our own. Are we witnessing, gradually, then suddenly, the end of Nigel Farage's political career? Welcome to the special edition of The News Agents from Birmingham.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:48)
The News Agents.

**Lewis Goodall** (1:50)
It doesn't bother you if Farage has broken the law?

**SPEAKER_7** (1:52)
I don't think he has.

**Lewis Goodall** (1:54)
If he had, would it bother you?

**SPEAKER_8** (1:57)
I trust him.

**SPEAKER_9** (1:58)
I don't think he has. I don't think he has.

**SPEAKER_8** (2:00)
He wants to be prime minister. He's not going to go and break.

**SPEAKER_9** (2:05)
He'd be fine.

**SPEAKER_8** (2:06)
Watch his space. He'd be fine.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:08)
Nothing that Farage could do would put you off?

**SPEAKER_10** (2:10)
No.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:10)
Nothing at all?

**SPEAKER_10** (2:11)
No.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:11)
Even if he committed a crime?

**SPEAKER_10** (2:13)
I can't see him doing that.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:14)
But if he did?

**SPEAKER_10** (2:16)
Depending on the crime. And if, saying nowadays, you get in more trouble for tweeting than you do for murder.

**SPEAKER_11** (2:23)
I don't think the establishment will let Nigel Farage become Prime Minister of this country ever. That's my take on it.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:32)
So you think it's part of an establishment plot or establishment?

**SPEAKER_11** (2:36)
Yeah.

**Lewis Goodall** (2:38)
What a difference a year makes. A year ago, this party gathered in this hall in Birmingham and it felt unstoppable.

**Nigel Farage** (2:46)
We are the last chance the country's got to get this country back on track.
You cannot come here illegally and stay. We will stop the votes within two weeks of winning government. I'm off to have lunch in a few weeks with the Prime Minister of Albania. I might book a very big plane and take a load with me. I'm not sure yet.

**Lewis Goodall** (3:15)
It felt inevitable, at least to some.
In a way, reform is acting as if the script is the same. 100 days is everywhere here. The theme of the conference, what the party would do in its first 100 days of majority governments. Yet in hushed, dark whispers, the actual question uttered at this conference, at least by some at the top, is whether Nigel Farage even has 100 days left.
If the body blow came from anywhere, it was Channel 4 and Verbatim's exclusive investigation, which dropped on Thursday night.

**James Orr** (3:47)
So I won't bring a word of this to anybody, obviously, and Nigel won't know, he doesn't know, he won't know. So it's the kind of thing he doesn't want to, he would rather not know. We're going to run this, 18K files for now. And then maybe somebody I could think of, who they could send in an invoice to. But that would just be a suggestion at all. Like, it's not an in-narrative campaign, it's not a contribution, it's not a legit...
I think somebody could pay for it, and it can't be...

**SPEAKER_11** (4:20)
It can't be a reform donor.

**James Orr** (4:21)
It can't be a reform donor. And it allows us to be, it ought to be completely legit, just the arm's length and nothing untoward about it at all.

**Dan Jukes** (4:30)
Great, I love it.

**James Orr** (4:31)
And even if everything were to come out, which it won't...