Reform U.K. is Said to Land Over $1 Million in Populist Show of Force

New York Times

28-01-2025

Britain's populist party, Reform U.K., was expected to bring in more than $1.25 million dollars at a glitzy fund-raiser on Tuesday, a party official said, an extraordinary amount for a party that six months ago was on the fringe of national politics.
The big-ticket, American-style event was the first major fund-raiser since Nigel Farage took over as party leader and his ideological ally, Donald J. Trump, returned to the White House.
Mr. Farage wants to remake British conservatism, just as Mr. Trump has in the United States. He has pushed the movement to the right with a nationalistic platform that is anti-immigrant and anti-regulation.
For a party that raised less than $200,000 in all of 2023, the turnaround since Mr. Farage became its leader last year has been remarkable. Riding a populist wave that has been felt from Germany to France to Washington, Mr. Farage has catapulted his party from a political sideshow to a well-funded force.
Mr. Farage arrived at Oswald's, an exclusive members-only club in London's Mayfair neighborhood Tuesday and hurried out of the drizzle, past a scrum of journalists. Oswald's is owned by Robin Birley, a major Reform donor.
The Duke of Marlborough, Charles James Spencer-Churchill, followed shortly behind. Arron Banks, who bankrolled the Brexit campaign, also attended, as did Lady Victoria Hervey and Holly Valance, the former pop star and actor who is married to Reform's treasurer.
A senior party official said that Reform sold 90 tickets at between £10,000 and £25,000 apiece. That would raise well over £1 million ($1.25 million) for the party. The party official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss preliminary accounting.
Reform's treasurer, the real estate billionaire Nick Candy, has pledged to 'secure more money for the party than any other in British political history' and Mr. Farage has openly toyed with accepting donations from Mr. Trump's donors. The billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk has discussed donating money, Mr. Farage has said.
Unlike in the United States, there are no limits on political donations in Britain. (Political spending, however, is capped.) As rumors of a looming donation from Mr. Musk, some British politicians have raised the idea of capping foreign campaign donations.
Reform won a record five seats in Parliament (Mr. Farage's first win after seven failed attempts) and 14 percent of the vote in last year's national election. Today, the party is polling ahead of the Conservatives and closing the gap with the governing Labour Party.
Despite the polling gains and sudden influx of cash, Reform has a steep fund-raising hill to climb. Labour raised around £30 million and the Tories about £48 million in 2023, the last full year for which data is available.
Mr. Farage built his political career around opposition to the European Union and immigration, helping to drive the Brexit vote in 2016. While polls show the majority of Britons now believe that leaving the European Union was a mistake, that sentiment has not harmed Mr. Farage's status.
His fortunes look set to be galvanized by Mr. Trump's win. Reform claims to be Britain's fastest growing party, recently surpassing the Conservatives with almost 187,000 supporters paying voluntary membership fees.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Farage have been longtime allies. Mr. Trump heralded Mr. Farage's election last summer, and Mr. Farage was by his side at Mar-a-Lago on election night as Mr. Trump was voted back into the White House.
Many of Reform's new key pledges in its 2024 manifesto, or policy platform, echo Mr. Trump's actions during his first days back in office.
Reform pledged to abandon key climate targets and swing the energy sector back toward oil and gas. The party wants to to cut taxes, slash 'wasteful' government spending and increase military spending. And it wants to scrap diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Farage rallies against 'woke' ideology and 'transgender indoctrination.'
One of Reform's most ambitious promises is to eliminate the National Health Service waiting lists in two years by investing in private health care and injecting £17 billion ($21.1 billion) into the public health service — nearly three times more than any other political party has pledged.
But the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent research group, said that Reform's overall tax and spending plans 'do not add up' and will cost billions more than claimed.
Last week, Mr. Farage heralded Mr. Trump's return to power as 'the greatest comeback in modern politics' and 'joyful to behold.' The Republicans, he wrote in a column for The Telegraph, have 'discovered a completely new definition of conservatism.'
'Populism was the winner in the recent elections in America,' he wrote. 'Who's to say it could not be the same in the U.K., too?'