UNIONS crashed Reform UK’s party conference today, slamming the hard-right outfit for its “undeclared cronyism” after it was hit with another donations scandal.

The TUC held a demonstration outside the conference in Birmingham where protesters dressed as senior party figures in burglar outfits, holding sacks of cash alluding to Reform’s dodgy financial dealings as well as the rights they intend to strip from workers.

They also displayed a giant sign reading “Reform wants to legalise you being harassed at work” and “Reform wants to keep you on an exploitative zero-hours contract.”

Hours before Reform boss Nigel Farage was set to speak at the conference, two senior officials were sacked in the wake of an undercover investigation that showed them apparently plotting to get around electoral rules on foreign donations.

The party said it was launching an investigation into its head of policy James Orr and into Mr Farage’s senior aide Dan Jukes who appeared in footage broadcast on Channel 4 News Thursday evening, produced by investigative journalism group Verbatim, created by the Centre for Climate Reporting.

In the videos, they appear to be helping in a plan to bypass election laws after undercover journalists pretended to be a Reform supporter and his rich US father, who paid for £30,000 of party-commissioned polling in their favour.

This type of donation, from a foreign source and unregistered with the Electoral Commission, would have been impermissible under British electoral laws.

Mr Farage himself was also caught in the footage meeting with the fake US donor in his constituency of Clacton, where he appeared to hail the poll as “amazing” and which apparently provided “bang for buck,” even adding: “It worked. Boom.”

“Reform has serious questions to answer,” a TUC spokesperson told the Morning Star.

“These are extremely concerning revelations — and it’s only right now that they are investigated by the police and Electoral Commission.

“But what’s clear is that Reform is a political party for hire, at any cost. Whether it’s multimillion-pound bungs, luxury houses, or other dodgy dealings, this undeclared cronyism stinks.

“Farage likes to claim he’s taking on the elites. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is he wants to hand more power to vested interests and his wealthy corporate backers.”

During a press conference, the Reform boss defended his party saying: “We have not taken an illegal penny in funding, that is important. The loose pub talk, frankly, there was a bit of boasting, a bit of jack-the-lad-dery going on there.”

The Electoral Commission said today it was in contact with the Metropolitan Police and was “considering all relevant information.”

It closely follows a recent scandal surrounding a £5m gift to Mr Farage from the Thailand-based donor Christopher Harborne before the 2024 election, which led to the Reform leader calling a by-election in his constituency, pausing an investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner.

Transparency International UK head of research Syebe Goodrich said: “If party officials knowingly conspired to facilitate overseas donations and obscure the origins of these funds it’s a criminal offence, and the police should investigate.

“This story underlines how big money is corrupting UK politics, and the urgent need for a meaningful cap on donations.”

Green Party deputy leader Rachel Millward said recent revelations “opened a window on how the super-rich corrupt our political parties.”

Ms Millward said we have a “real opportunity” to “clean up our politics,” referring to an amendment put forward by the Greens to the Representation of the People Bill, which would ban political donations from corporations.

“Politicians of all stripes need to step up and strengthen the Bill by supporting a cap on donations,” she said, adding: “People need to know that the politicians they vote for will be acting in their interests, not in the interests of powerful lobbyists and donors.”

In the run-up to the Reform conference, new polling from Ipsos found the public are more than twice as likely to be unfavourable towards Mr Farage (54 per cent) as favourable (26 per cent).

And polls showed similar rates of support for the party as a whole, with 27 per cent favourable and 52 per cent unfavourable.