Nigel Farage adviser had unpublicised role at polling firm

A close adviser to Nigel Farage had an influential role at a national polling company despite not being publicly associated with the firm, the Guardian can reveal. Chris Bruni-Lowe, Farage’s private pollster for many years, played an important role in the operations of Redfield & Wilton Strategies and used it to develop potential campaign strategies, according to several sources who have worked there.

Founded in 2020, the firm is owned by Bruno Rodrigues, a lawyer, with Philip van Scheltinga, a Harvard graduate, serving as its main public face. As the Covid pandemic grew and the UK entered lockdown, the company’s polls received increasing coverage, even while the source of the firm’s polling expertise was unclear.

Former employees have now revealed the important role of Bruni-Lowe, who sometimes went by the name “Chris Redfield,” under which quotes were published by the Washington Post newspaper. Sources indicated that Bruni-Lowe directed research on issues such as council spending and appeared “obsessed” with producing a dossier which he suggested could be sold to political parties.

Bruni-Lowe’s role at the company raises questions about transparency in the polling industry, especially given his longstanding association with Farage during a time of intense scrutiny over the party’s use of polls to shape its political narrative. The rules of the British Polling Council do not require pollsters to state any political affiliations, but they have strict guidelines on how they must declare who has commissioned and paid for any polling.

In a statement, Rodrigues, the company’s sole director, said there had never been “an institutional, polling, research, commissioning or financial relationship” between Redfield & Wilton and Reform UK or Farage. He noted that Bruni-Lowe had worked as a “consultant” from mid-2020 until late 2022 and returned “voluntarily” in the summer of 2025 to train interns. Rodrigues added that Bruni-Lowe was “an important and highly valued member” of the team.

Sources stated that Bruni-Lowe was heavily involved in the company’s polling operations. Rodrigues explained that the surname Redfield was used as an email account convention within the organization, citing other examples of “Philip Redfield” and “Bruno Redfield.” He emphasized that it was not a device created specifically for Chris and did not conceal his identity from people working within the company.

Nonetheless, the situation was confusing enough that at least one newspaper, the Washington Post, attributed quotes to that name. Notes taken by a former employee during an oral induction in the summer of 2021 described “boss – Chris Redfield is COO essentially.” Rodrigues clarified that Bruni-Lowe was never presented to staff as the company’s chief operating officer and that staff were never instructed to treat him as such.