There he was trying to earn some money from a Thai crypto billionaire and a gold bullion dealer, and yet still Reform kept getting linked to dodgy cash. It was almost as if a pattern was emerging. First there was the £5m gift, then the Posh George donations via Dicky Tice, and now Channel 4 News had done a sting on him and two of his most trusted aides in which it looked as if they were happy to break the law on political donations.
Life can be so damned unfair at times. Always kicking you when you are down. The headlines from Reform’s party conference in Birmingham were meant to be all about Nige declaring a national emergency the moment he got in to No 10.
Instead he was dealing with a rather more pressing crisis. Every time he tries to persuade the country he’s running a serious party and that it isn’t a one-man band, something seems to happen to make it look like a dodgy, third-rate clown show. Operation Failed Clean-up was initially left in the hands of Richard Tice and Lee Anderson.
Imagine how bad it has to be for these two to be left in charge. Dicky is one of the least plausible politicians you can hope to find, so he didn’t even appreciate the irony of claiming it was all an establishment plot run by leftwing eco activists. As for Lee, he was adamant that the two Reform members involved – James Orr, a Cambridge associate professor and supposed brains behind the party, and Dan Jukes, Nige’s trusted right-hand gofer for more than a decade – had been out of line and suspended from the party.
More than that, they weren’t coming back. More than that he couldn’t say as an investigation had been started. So who was leading the investigation, he was asked.
Sometimes he runs Dicky a close second. Others were equally as confused. Danny Kruger was in a more forgiving mood and thought there might be some way back for Orr and Jukes once the Reform investigation had exonerated them.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
