Media regulator Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into a Sky News broadcast after Reform UK lodged a complaint on Nigel Farage's behalf alleging unfair treatment and an unwarranted infringement of his privacy, the party leader said on Friday.
The complaint centres on a report broadcast last month and on an approach made by a reporter on 6 July to a house where Farage's adult daughter lives. Ofcom confirmed it was investigating a fairness and privacy complaint but declined to identify the parties, saying: "We treat fairness and privacy complaints in strict confidence and do not publicly confirm the identities of individuals involved."
According to a document reported by the Telegraph, the regulator said it had "entertained a complaint from Reform UK, made on behalf of Mr Nigel Farage, of unjust or unfair treatment in the programme as broadcast", and had also entertained a complaint "about unwarranted infringement of Mr Farage's privacy regarding the programme as broadcast". The confirmation that Farage is the complainant comes from Reform UK and from reporting of that document, rather than from Ofcom on the record.
Farage announced the development on social media, writing that Ofcom was "launching an investigation into Sky News after they harassed my daughter", and adding: "I have been appalled at the way various members of my family have been treated."
Sky News has rejected the harassment characterisation. In a statement posted on X on 7 July, the broadcaster said it had not been at the property at 07:41 on 6 July, the time of a first approach shown in CCTV footage released by Farage, and set out its account of the second.
"Sky News did not interact with Mr Farage's daughter. On a single occasion, we approached the property without a camera operator, identified ourselves as Sky News, and the adult occupant chose not to engage."
The broadcaster said it had been outside a property where Farage was registered to vote at the last election, and that it was seeking to contact him to ask about a gift he accepted from George Cottrell, describing the approach as "a well-established and routine journalistic practice when reporting on matters of legitimate public interest". Sky has not commented publicly on the investigation itself. The identity of the person who made the earlier approach at 07:41 has not been established.
The doorstep followed a Sunday Times investigation, published on 5 July, reporting that Farage had received financial benefits from Cottrell, who was jailed in the United States in 2017 after pleading guilty to wire fraud, in the year before he was elected MP for Clacton in 2024. Confronted by a Sky reporter at an airport later that day, Farage said: "You tell your bosses, you harass my family any more, there will be serious consequences."
He resigned his seat the following day, citing the approach to his daughter as the "final straw", and regained Clacton at a by-election on 13 August with 63.3% of the vote and a majority of 12,784. A Commons standards inquiry into an undeclared £5m gift from donor Christopher Harborne, suspended when he stepped down, resumed within hours of his re-election.
Reform UK's letter to the regulator alleged breaches of rules on accuracy, impartiality and privacy, and demanded an on-air apology and correction. Ofcom has no power to compel a broadcaster to issue either, though it can direct the broadcast of a summary of its adjudication where a fairness or privacy breach has seriously damaged a complainant's legitimate interests, and can impose fines in serious cases.
The regulator aims to complete fairness and privacy adjudications within 90 working days of entertaining a complaint, pointing to a provisional outcome around the turn of the year. Ofcom cannot consider complaints about unfairness in the making of a programme, only as broadcast, although privacy complaints may extend to how material was obtained.
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