Cambridge University probe into James Orr after Reform donations sting

The University of Cambridge has said it has launched a probe after associate professor James Orr was alleged to have breached political donation rules after an undercover investigation into Reform UK.

Mr Orr stepped down as the party’s head of policy after claims he arranged to have polling paid for by an overseas company – an impermissible donor under electoral law.

A Cambridge University spokesperson said: “The University is looking into these matters.”

Mr Orr is associate professor of Philosophy of Religion at Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity.

He and a long-serving Nigel Farage aide Dan Jukes have stepped down and the party has launched an investigation following allegations, broadcast as the party’s annual conference got underway.

But Mr Farage has insisted “nothing illegal” had happened, while Mr Jukes has denied any wrongdoing and said it was a case of entrapment.

However, he did acknowledge that comments by Mr Orr and Mr Jukes were “injudicious at best”.

Asked about footage in which Mr Jukes appeared to say they had previously disguised donations from foreign sources, Mr Farage described it as “loose pub talk, including a couple of boasts that simply were not true”.

He added: “So in the video, when he says we’ve done it with X, we’ve done it with Y. Well, the reason that Channel 4 haven’t broadcast the names of X and Y is because it isn’t true.

“Donations from the names that were mentioned have not occurred, don’t exist… in our accounts.”