Who is bankrolling Reform UK?
I spoke to Prospect about the super-rich donors driving Farage’s machine - and what they want
This week I’m heading to Birmingham, for Reform UK’s party conference. And I won’t be alone.
The conference is billed as the party’s largest since Nigel Farage founded the then Brexit Party - as a private limited company - in 2018. At least 5,500 tickets have been sold for the two-day event.
With Reform riding high in the polls, lobbyists are reportedly “flocking” to Birmingham. Heathrow Airport is hosting a lounge. TikTok - where Farage has built up a sizeable following - will be there.
“Lobbyists are taking Reform seriously. One in five is now planning to attend, and if the political winds keep up, we expect to see this number increase further,” Jon Gerlis, head of policy at trade body the Chartered Institute of Public Relations told PR Week.
In truth, the Birmingham shindig is more rally than conference. There will be no votes on the floor - Farage maintains total control of the party - and speeches are likely to be rousing clarion calls for ‘mass deportation’ or axing none existent ‘DEI’ programmes rather than detailed policy debates.
But the conference does offer Reform something it desperately needs: money.
Party conferences can be lucrative fundraising opportunities - the Conservatives long relied on them to wine and dine deep-pocketed donors at fringe events and off-site dinners.
Reform is offering corporate packages worth up to £250,000, including a boozy breakfast with Farage and “unlimited complementary drinks”. (The party has yet to say if anyone has actually stumped up for that….)
Reform has talked openly about trying to raise tens of millions of pounds. Farage and his treasurer Nick Candy even flew to the US to meet Elon Musk - although the onetime ‘first buddy’ now seems more interested in bankrolling a far-right vehicle involving Tommy Robinson.
So far, Reform has raised millions in private donations, with much of that cash coming from former Tory donors.
The party’s biggest ever donors include Christopher Harborne, who gave £1million to Boris Johnson’s private office; former Conservative donor and metals trader David Lilley; and Fiona Cottrell, whose son George is a convicted fraudster and Farage’s right-hand man.
Ahead of this week’s conference, I spoke to Benjamin Clark from Prospect magazine about who has been funding Reform, their links to the oil and gas industries and offshore tax havens - and why I’m so concerned about a previous ‘black hole’ in the party’s financial accounts.
You can watch the whole video above, and follow Prospect’s Substack here.
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Following Brexit, Russia claimed the UK was on its knees and would take a decade to recover. It’s Farage and his ilk who have brought about this situation.
This was a very very interesting conversation. The only thing that bothers me is that it won't be something the ordinary Reform voter will access. So they will never know that they are being used. Trump also made himself the only one who got a huge amount of money from donors and unfortunately his voters didn't realise, until it was too late that he wasn't FOR THE PEOPLE! Those of us that see the connection are worried about this. I'm probably not going to vote for Labour, for the 2nd time in my life, as they have bought into American style interference with allowing Silicon Valley to pull them towards more control of British people. Which is how Musk co-joined with trump. Peter how can we make the reform leaning voters listen to the facts you present? Social media can only go so far. The viewers are quite naturally going to only view people that have their same point of view. Maybe Starmer should step up and point this out but will he? He has skeletons in his closet too regarding dark money donors! Looking forward to your comments after or during the "Reform Convention" but as you say it's not really a political policy debate it's a fund-raising rally. You've spoken about foreign money being donated through shell companies before and that still worries me. We are seeing the Americans, the Chinese and also the Americans using social media to infiltrate and in some cases control the messaging out there. I will definitely sign on to Prospect magazine. Also I think that the Tories are the big donors says it all. They know their name is mud. How can we let the voters know that if they vote for Reform they are essentially voting for the Conservative party's politics. I'm sure they won't like that! Yet once again it will be too late, like it was when Trump took over the Republican Party.