Analysis

Money Talks

Adam Bienkov explores what the downfall of Reform senior advisor James Orr means for the future viability of the Nigel Farage project

When James Orr was appointed as a senior advisor to Nigel Farage, much was made of his supposed ability to add intellectual heft and ethical weight to Reform UK.

Announcing his appointment as the party’s new policy chief, Reform’s Zia Yusuf described him as a “brilliant academic,” a “theologian”, and a “thinker”. In newspaper profiles, he was “Farage’s brain” and his “philosopher king”.

According to these depictions, Orr’s involvement in Reform was rooted not just in politics, but in an almost ordained principle, dating back to his own religious conversion some years before.

The reality, as exposed by the recent Verbatim undercover report broadcast by Channel 4 News – ‘Reform Caught on Camera – The Foreign Money Scandal’, looks far grubbier.