Birmingham (United Kingdom) (AFP) - British hard-right leader Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party gathered for its annual conference on Friday engulfed by a fresh scandal over allegations it flouted donations rules.

The Brexit figurehead was hoping to use the meeting to move on from multiple controversies over financial gifts that has dented his anti-immigration party’s standing in opinion polls.

But just hours before Farage’s keynote address, two senior Reform officials resigned following an undercover investigation aired by Channel 4 News that alleged they had conspired to secure a foreign donation – barred under UK electoral law.

Delegates at the conference in the central English city of Birmingham played down the allegations.

Heather Kynman condemned the timing of the broadcast as “absolutely outrageous”.

“I just think they (opponents) are so worried about Reform, it’s attack, attack, attack all the time,” the 62-year-old nurse told AFP, adding that Farage had her full backing.

“I think (Farage) is absolutely brilliant. He’s the one leader that is showing real backbone. What he’s saying now has never changed,” she said.

Reform said in a statement that party policy head James Orr and Farage’s longtime aide Dan Jukes had stepped down from their roles pending the outcome of an internal probe.

The ruling Labour party was among rival parties to say they had reported Reform to police over claims it took funding from a US firm for three opinion polls it commissioned earlier this year.

The purported donors were in fact undercover reporters for investigative journalism group Verbatim.

London’s Metropolitan police said it was “aware” of the reports.

- ‘Entrapment’ -

Farage, 62, insisted in an interview with LBC radio that Reform had “broken no laws” and was the victim of “entrapment”.

In Birmingham, conference delegate Darren Ball predicted the furore would not knock Reform’s prospects.

“I think Reform will certainly be in power. We need it. Reform is the only party that can save this country. Immigration is a huge thing for the UK. It needs to be addressed,” the 51-year-old who works in security said.

Firebrand Farage, who is eyeing the keys to No 10 Downing Street, has been seeking to regain the momentum that saw Reform chalk up significant success at May local elections.

Until late July, Reform had led centre-left Labour in polls for over a year, but it has recently slipped behind with Farage facing intense scrutiny over his finances and Labour enjoying a bounce under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Parliament’s sleaze watchdog is already investigating a £5 million ($6.7 million) donation from British crypto-currency billionaire Christopher Harborne to Farage, who has said the money was for his security.

He says it was received before he was elected and therefore did not need to be declared to parliamentary authorities.

John Howard, 62, a property developer and aspiring Reform candidate from Ipswich in eastern England, said the new potential scandal was “disappointing” but insisted it was “just a blip”.

“We’ll see whether they (the officials) are guilty of anything serious. If they are, they won’t come back clearly, and the party will learn from it,” he said.

He conceded that the party had its work cut out for it since Burnham had replaced unpopular former Labour prime minister Keir Starmer.

- ‘Vulnerable’ -

Farage remains Reform’s most recognisable figure with his party’s rise closely tied to his political persona as a plain-speaking, anti-establishment populist.

The party’s main focus is its anti-immigration policies, in particular ending the arrival of thousands of irregular migrants by small boat on England’s southern coast.

Farage had been the “big asset for Reform for some years” but was now “looking pretty vulnerable”, Paul Whiteley, professor of government at the University of Essex, told AFP ahead of the conference.

Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, is also facing allegations that he failed to declare financial gifts.

Reform hopes to establish itself as the ruling Labour Party’s main challenger on the right. It currently has just eight seats in the 650-seat Westminster parliament despite securing 14 percent of the vote at the 2024 general election.

But it also faces competition from Reform defector Rupert Lowe’s far-right Restore Britain that has eaten into Reform’s support.

The conference will later be addressed by Jordan Bardella, president of France’s anti-immigrant, eurosceptic National Rally (RN) party, ahead of Farage’s speech.