The Reform leader has denied wrongdoing throughout the three-day event.
Nigel Farage admitted Reform UK would “make mistakes” as he closed a party conference overshadowed by questions about donations.
The Reform leader has denied wrongdoing throughout the three-day event, following a report by Channel 4 News that showed senior Reform figures discussing how to disguise donations from foreign sources.
Accepting donations from a foreign company, including donations in kind such as polling, could constitute a criminal offence, and the party has been reported to the police.
Two senior figures – long-term Farage aide Dan Jukes, who denies wrongdoing, and head of policy James Orr – have also been suspended pending an internal investigation, and Mr Farage admitted to ITV that the scandal would worry some voters.
But closing the conference on Saturday, he struck a more optimistic note.
He told delegates: “There will be times in this journey when there are good days and times when there are difficult days.
“More often than not, things will be put upon us that are unfair.
“But sometimes we will make mistakes, sometimes we will get things wrong and get a bit of a kicking for it.
“But what this conference has shown is whatever you throw at the leadership, whatever they throw at you, the people’s army, we immediately pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and start all over again.”
The row over the Channel 4 report has overshadowed Reform’s annual conference, which had been billed as setting out the party’s plans for its first 100 days in office.
The footage was part of an investigation by undercover group Verbatim, who posed as an American donor and his son who had paid for polling allegedly commissioned by Reform and were seeking to channel money to the party.
Earlier on Saturday, Mr Farage had sought to defend himself in a series of interviews, repeating his claim that Mr Jukes had been engaging in “loose pub talk” when he told undercover reporters Reform had previously disguised the identity of foreign donors.
Mr Farage has said Mr Jukes and Mr Orr were “injudicious at best”, while denying any wrongdoing and saying he was told that any arrangements were “above board”.
Speaking to the BBC on Saturday, he claimed to “know donation law better than anybody” and said the two men “should have done basic checks” before bringing potential donors to meet him.
He said he “frankly wasn’t even listening” during a meeting with the undercover reporters in Clacton, adding: “I was told there was a global family office based in London, so the money could have come from Singapore.
“The money could come from all over the world, you know. Income could have come from all over the world into a family office based in London.”
The latest row continues a difficult period for Mr Farage, whose poll ratings have fallen amid scrutiny of Reform’s finances and a Clacton by-election that was boycotted by other parties.
In his ITV interview, Mr Farage insisted he had not thought about quitting as party leader, but admitted members of his family had said he should “walk away”.
He said: “I have had, I’ll be honest, you know when your own family start to turn on you because of what you do, some very thoughtful moments. Very, very thoughtful moments.”
Asked whether the party’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf could replace him, Mr Farage said: “If there’s thousands of people out there would prefer Zia or someone else to me, do you know what? I’d recognise that.”
Mr Farage closed the three-day event on Saturday afternoon, at which senior party figures have set out their plans for a future Reform government.
On Saturday, economic spokesman Robert Jenrick promised to raise the income tax personal allowance to £15,000 within 100 days of taking office, delivering a tax cut for 40 million workers.
The threshold has been set at £12,570 since 2021 and is due to remain there until 2031.
Reform said the plan would save the average taxpayer £500 a year and take 2.9 million people out of income tax altogether, at a cost of £17.7 billion in its first year, rising to £21 billion five years later.
Education spokeswoman Suella Braverman vowed to cut funding for “Mickey Mouse degrees” and force schools to fly the Union flag and sing the national anthem “and our great hymns”.
In his own speech, Mr Farage said he would declare a national emergency and make Parliament sit round the clock to deliver on his party’s priorities.
Mr Farage’s speech was delayed for an hour by a “security alert” and disrupted by hecklers who were removed by security.
West Midlands Police has asked one of the protesters to come forward after footage showed audience members pulling her hair and grabbing her head.
Asked about the handling of the hecklers, Mr Farage told ITV: “This is just all so one-sided. It is ridiculous. There were people there trying to disrupt our conference. We always have them. We always have them, and we remove them quickly and expeditiously.”
Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said: “Farage finishes conference as he started: with desperate excuses and pathetic deflection tactics to try to distract from his and his party’s shady finances.
“The sleaze and scandals engulfing Reform aren’t going away. Farage needs to wake up, take responsibility and realise the buck stops with him.”
