Robert Jenrick probed over Reform donations sting in fiery GB News clash: 'People aren't silly!'

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Reform UK figures James Orr and Dan Jukes have left the party after an undercover investigation into donations

Watch the moment Reform UK's Robert Jenrick and GB News host Camilla Tominey descend into a fiery clash over a donations sting against the party.

Speaking to the People's Channel, the Reform Treasury Spokesman assured that leader Nigel Farage has taken "swift action" to suspend the two figures involved and what they did was "completely wrong".

Making clear that Reform "did not commission" the polling featured in the sting, Mr Jenrick said: "Firstly, let me say that when we watched that footage back, some of the comments made by the two individuals involved were completely wrong.

"We were disappointed, and that's exactly why Nigel acted very swiftly and suspended them. They are removed, they're gone, that was the right thing to do."

Defending Mr Farage further, the Reform MP said: "Ultimately, you judge a leader a party in the way in which they they handle these situations when they arise because they happen for all parties.

"But on the specifics of that, Reform didn't commission these polls, they were commissioned by these people, these pranksters.

"They commissioned it with the pollster, it was then given directly to the newspapers and put into the public domain.

"I guess you could say it was helpful to Reform, but it was helpful to the kind of politics generally."

Pushing back on Mr Jenrick's defence of Reform, Camilla questioned the involvement of Reform figures featured in the hidden camera footage.

She pressed the Reform spokesman: "If Reform weren't involved in its commissioning, what on earth was Dan Jukes having the meeting with the pollster for? We literally see it on camera.

"You can't think people are so silly as to think that Reform weren't involved in these polls?"

Mr Jenrick responded: "They didn't commission the poll. That's the point, they clearly didn't."

Citing electoral legislation, Camilla told Mr Jenrick: "They clearly didn't have a look at the provisions laid out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, Section 54.

"It says that a donation includes a benefit in-kind, meaning goods, services or expenses such as polling paid for by a third party for the party's benefit on non-commercial terms.

"If Reform UK commissioned and arranged for JL Partners, what's Dan Jukes doing meeting with the pollster? How do you explain that meeting?"

Assuring the party has taken "legal advice" pending an investigation, Mr Jenrick told GB News: "We've taken legal advice, I've read the legal advice, and your viewers can see that this is a practice that is entirely above board and happens routinely."

Camilla then argued: "I understand you as a former lawyer arguing this on a technicality isn't a poll commissioned by Reform. Whatever, people can look at it all, look at the footage, judge for themselves.

"But when you look at it and you look at Dan Jukes and James Orr, it just all looks a little bit dodgy, it smells a little bit off?"

She added: "It looks a bit amateurish - we now have your leader Farage saying 'I wasn't even listening in the lunch'. Well, he's the leader of the party, does he just turn a blind eye to stuff that might be uncomfortable for him?"

Mr Jenrick defended Mr Farage's remarks, hitting back: "Look, he was out campaigning in the Clacton by-election, an aide of his asked him if he'd come to lunch, glad-hand somebody who might be a potential donor, say hello, have a glass of wine, say thank you.

"And obviously all of the compliance is done by other people behind this. That's the way in which leaders behave."

Responding to the investigation, Mr Farage said that the polls in question had been commissioned by an "independent third party" and that Reform had "not done anything wrong".