Robert Jenrick has insisted he has “co-operated fully” with investigations into a political donation of nearly £40,000 to his failed Conservative leadership campaign. It has been alleged that £37,500 donated to his Tory leadership bid was from a foreign source, in breach of electoral rules. The Reform UK Treasury spokesman on Thursday claimed his former party introduced him to the donor. Police launched an investigation after a referral from the elections watchdog.
Jenrick denies wrongdoing
Mr Jenrick, who defected from the Tories to Reform UK in January, said he had “not done anything wrong whatsoever”. A caller on an LBC phone-in criticised him for not holding a by-election when he joined Nigel Farage’s party and said Mr Jenrick was “now subject apparently of a police investigation”.
Mr Jenrick replied: “That’s not actually true… That’s not correct. What’s actually happened here is that I stood for leader of the Conservative Party back in the day. The Conservative Party introduced a donor to me, they checked out whether or not this bloke was legit or not. There’s now been a suggestion that maybe part of his donation was from an overseas company. That’s been looked into. I’ve co-operated fully. I’ve not done anything wrong whatsoever, and I’ve not actually had any contact from the Metropolitan Police, so I’ve no idea whether or not they’re looking into it or not. But they’ve certainly not told me one way or another.”
Police investigation details
The i Paper reported that the Met Police had launched an investigation following allegations that £37,500 of £100,000 in donations from a British-registered company to his campaign to succeed Rishi Sunak originated from a foreign source. The Electoral Commission had been also been probing the claims. A Met spokesperson said: “We have launched an investigation following a referral from the Electoral Commission on Tuesday 6 January concerning donations connected to a political party’s leadership campaign. The investigation remains ongoing.”
Farage by-election controversy
During the three-hour LBC phone-in, Mr Jenrick also rejected suggestions that Nigel Farage was “cowardly” for not waiting for the outcome of a parliamentary investigation into a £5 million gift he received from a crypto-billionaire before calling a by-election in his Clacton constituency. Another caller asked why the Reform leader had not held off until the outcome of an inquiry by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, which will now be paused after he quit as an MP but could resume if he is re-elected.
Mr Jenrick replied: “Well, I don’t think you can ever call people cowardly who call by-elections, but the point I’d make is the one I made a few minutes ago to our other caller, which is that the ultimate sanction that the authorities in the House of Commons have, if indeed Nigel were ever found guilty, and he professes his innocence, would be to call a by-election. And so he just cut – he’s cut the whole thing off and said, ‘why waste the next six months or goodness knows how long?’ Maybe it’s even going to be – I saw Lucy Powell, the Labour Party deputy leader, saying it could be over a year. He’s cut the whole thing off and said, ‘let’s have the by-election now. If that’s the worst you can do to me, bring it on! Have it now!’”
