The Metropolitan Police is investigating a donation to Robert Jenrick's 2024 Conservative leadership campaign, following a referral from the Electoral Commission. The force opened a formal inquiry on 6 January 2025 after the Commission referred findings on donations connected to the race to succeed Rishi Sunak.

The investigation focuses on £37,500 within a larger sum of £100,000 given to Jenrick's campaign by Spott Fitness, a UK-registered company. The Electoral Commission examined whether this portion of the donation had in fact originated from a US company called Innovyz. Under electoral law, foreign donations to UK political campaigns are banned. The Commission passed its findings to the Met in January, though the force's confirmation of a formal investigation only became public this week.

Phillip Ullmann, a British businessman, already disclosed in September 2024 that he was behind the Spott Fitness donations. The narrower question the Electoral Commission then pursued was whether £37,500 of that money came from Innovyz, which was founded by Gary Klopfenstein, an American businessman who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2024.

Jenrick, who finished second to Kemi Badenoch in the 2024 Conservative leadership contest, has said he never met, spoke to, or had any contact with Klopfenstein. He said he was unaware of any connection between Klopfenstein and Ullmann's donation. Jenrick called the allegations "entirely false" and said he has had no contact from the Metropolitan Police on the matter. His spokesman described any suggestion that Jenrick knowingly accepted an impermissible donation as "an untrue, politically motivated smear," and said he "fully cooperated with the Electoral Commission inquiry, providing detailed records that categorically disproved these smears in 2025." A spokesperson for Ullmann declined to comment.

The Conservative Party said all candidates in the 2024 leadership contest were reminded of the law governing permissible donations — a standard compliance step in any internal contest.

Jenrick left the Conservative Party for Reform UK in 2025 and now sits as a Reform MP. That shift means the investigation, though rooted in a Conservative leadership contest, now attaches to a sitting member of a different party — a detail that will shape how each side handles the political fallout as much as any legal outcome.

The Telegraph and Financial Times have both confirmed the existence of the Met inquiry, aligning with the BBC's reporting that this is a live criminal investigation.

The Electoral Commission faces a recurring difficulty in verifying the true source of donations routed through UK-registered companies. Spott Fitness was a permissible UK donor by virtue of its incorporation under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act. Whether money passing through such a company actually came from abroad is a separate question — one that requires tracing funds back through corporate structures. That distinction matters legally, since electoral law targets impermissible donors rather than merely opaque transactions.

For Reform UK, the timing is uncomfortable regardless of outcome. The party has positioned itself as offering cleaner, more accountable politics than the Westminster status quo. A criminal investigation into a sitting MP's past fundraising, even one predating his defection, does not fit the narrative the party wishes to project.

For the Conservatives, the episode shows how a bruising leadership contest can generate liabilities that persist long after the result. Badenoch's team will have no direct exposure to an investigation into her rival's fundraising, but the party's general statement about reminding candidates of donation law suggests it prefers to establish institutional distance rather than comment on Jenrick's conduct specifically.

The Metropolitan Police has given no timetable for concluding its inquiry. Nothing in the material published so far indicates the investigation's likely duration or outcome, and Jenrick has not been charged with any offence.