What Orr told the undercover reporter

James Orr, then Reform UK's head of policy and a Cambridge professor, raised the question of the Reform UK donations' legality months before the rules took effect. He questioned whether the £36m gifts from Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo would be lawful under the proposed cap on overseas donations. In July this year, he voiced doubt about whether Delo and Harborne would still be able to give, because the cap would reach back to donations made after March 2026.

His remarks were caught on camera. An investigative reporting group, Verbatim, filmed him undercover while one of its reporters posed as a potential donor. Each man had given £36m to Reform UK, a combined £72m.

• •Orr said the party leaned on the two men as its 'two big whales'
• •He thought Delo would probably clear the residency requirement, unless tax residence was required - in that case, he said, Delo would be 'stuffed'
• •Harborne he judged 'probably more of a challenge', saying he 'can't do anything for 12 months' after moving back to the UK
• •Orr set out a common law, two-limb factual test for someone moving back, covering time spent in England, a house, voting and bills, and believed Delo met it

The cap he expected to be challenged

The incoming law sets a £100,000 limit on what overseas donors may give. It applies to donations made after March 2026 and requires anyone giving more than £100,000 to have been resident in the UK for at least a calendar year.

In Orr's telling, the measure was retrospective in a way he had never seen before, and his party's answer was to fight it through the courts. He cast the money as gathered ahead of the tightening rules, speaking of 'filling the war chest in anticipation' and describing the new rules as the establishment trying to 'kneecap' the party. Judicial review was the route he described, with recent days spent building up funds 'in anticipation of something quite brutal'.

The donors' circumstances

Harborne had lived in Thailand until he registered to vote in Hampshire this summer. Delo has long been resident in Hong Kong, though he has sat on the UK domestic register for some years.

Orr also alluded to what he called Delo's 'complicated backstory': a 2022 conviction in the United States over failures to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls at his cryptocurrency business, followed by a pardon from Donald Trump. He added that he had spent time aboard Delo's yacht in the Peloponnese this summer, saying: 'We went from Athens down to Ben's boat in Porto Cheli'.

Where things stand

Reform UK stands by the money. A party spokesperson said: 'We are 100% confident both [donations] are legal and won't ever have to be handed back'.

The donors' representatives pushed back on Orr's remarks. Lawyers for Harborne described his comments as private speculation which it would not be appropriate to comment on, saying they did not represent established facts. Delo's lawyers declined to engage with speculation about a conversation he was not party to.

Orr himself did not respond to a request for comment. He has previously denied wrongdoing and called Verbatim 'politically motivated actors trying to discredit a political opponent through dubious legal means'.

His position within the party changed after the footage aired. He was suspended as Reform's head of policy last month, once Channel 4 broadcast part of Verbatim's filming in which he appeared to discuss circumventing funding laws for a US-based donor. Reform has since released its own report clearing Orr and another official of wrongdoing, yet he remains suspended and the matter is under police investigation. The party has also said it intends to take legal action against Verbatim and its directors over the undercover filming.