This is the first episode of our new mini-series exploring the financial interests of political parties in England and Wales. 

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has banked almost £5m from wealthy donors since 2023, including those with links to fossil fuels, the financial services industry and tax havens. It has also received significant financial investment from the general public in the form of party memberships. 

There seems to be a tension between the party’s desire to be seen as a grassroots, ‘by the people, for the people’ movement and its efforts to court the very billionaires its supporters believe they are rallying against. 

openDemocracy’s investigations reporter, Ethan Shone, examines this contradiction, discusses what Reform’s future might look like and asks whether the UK media is right to dedicate so much time to the party. 

Read Ethan’s investigation: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/reform-uk-funders-nigel-farage-5-million-donations-fossil-fuels-tax-havens/

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Credits:

Presented by James Battershill

Edited and produced by James Battershill, Ayodeji Rotinwa & Carla Abreu

Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela

00:00 Introduction

02:44 How was this data sourced?

04:25 What's the cut-off for reporting?

05:20 How does Reform's income compare to Labour and The Conservatives?

08:47 Off-shore benefactors for political parties

11:22 The people of note who back Reform

13:22 Backers shifting from Conservatives to Reform

14:34 George Cottrell - an unofficial aide?

17:49 The phantom punishments

19:22 What's Reform's future looking like?

23:48 Should we even be talking about Reform?

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