Reform’s New Backers: Why the Tories Should Be Very Afraid
The shifting tide that threatens Tory dominance.
A week or so ago, I was having coffee with a suave public relations executive who argued that Reform UK needs a different class of donor. Truth be told, I was irritated.
With some 220,000 members, each paying between £10 and £25 a year in subs, Nigel Farage’s party now pulls in several million a year from ordinary people who don’t have much to spare. They just want to do their bit. This transformational revenue has allowed the party to hire the people it needs to professionalise.
My companion shrugged. What Reform now needs, he insisted, is the backing of someone who owns an iconic British business. To really set the cat among the pigeons, he continued, it should be someone who has previously donated large sums to the Tories. The name he kept mentioning? JCB boss Anthony Bamford.
What about Nick Candy? I replied. Reform’s party Treasurer is a big fish, with an extraordinary personal and professional network.
My companion sniffed, muttering something about Candy being “too flashy.”
I disagree of course: netting the billionaire property developer was a massive coup for the party. I think he’s great, and know how committed he is to the cause. He certainly doesn’t need the grief that goes with political exposure: like millions of voters, he is just terrified of what is happening to our great country and believes only Reform can save it.
Acknowledging this, the PR man nonetheless continued to insist that Farage needs to attract more old-school Tory bluebloods. He argued that a big name like Bamford – who donated millions to the Tories and is a close personal friend of Boris Johnson – would send out a powerful signal that Reform UK is being taken very seriously by the business titans who used to invest their hope – and cash – in the Conservatives. Even a tacit endorsement from such a figure would fuel a growing sense that Reform UK is slowly strangling the Conservatives.
Exactly one week after this conversation, I watched as Farage rolled into the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on a brand new JCB “pothole fixer.” Hanging off the side of the gleaming yellow digger, a beaming Farage was met with thunderous applause. In a stunt that borrowed heavily from Donald Trump’s infamous campaign trail appearance in a garbage truck, the Reform UK leader would later don a workman’s vest to demonstrate his party’s readiness to roll up its sleeves to fix broken Britain. But first, he wanted to pay tribute to the billionaire who had lent him his unusual - and extremely expensive - ride. (JCB’s new digger, which the company says can mend potholes at around half the cost of the existing kit, costs around £200,000).
Thanking Bamford for the prop, Farage praised JCB as “probably the most incredible private company in this country, if not one of the most incredible in the world.”
Whoa there! Do I detect the sound of Kemi Badenoch hyperventilating? If not, she should be. For while Bamford has not endorsed Reform UK; nor – to the best of my knowledge - given Reform UK cold hard cash, he allowed his world-famous brand to take centre stage at Reform UK’s biggest-ever rally. Perhaps he is only teasing the Tories, but he must have known how it would look. At the very least, it seems as if Lord Bamford – who also funded an £8000 helicopter trip for Farage to tour a JCB site – is flirting with switching sides. That should send a shiver down the spine of the Tory party, which is desperately short of both money and friends in high places.
Friday night’s rally was not well timed to maximise mainstream media coverage. (Ahead of the weekend, newspaper deadlines are earlier than usual.) By the time Farage made his showstopping appearance on the JCB, Saturday’s papers would have gone to press. Nonetheless, plenty of media did make it. Whatever their political persuasions, those who attended must have been wowed. It was an extraordinary extravaganza: a big budget American style show that sparkled with energy and razzle-dazzle. Even without the Bamford thing, the sheer scale of the event must have given CCHQ the collywobbles. Even more unsettling for the embattled Badenoch is that this was ‘just’ a local council election campaign launch. If Reform UK can keep up the momentum, what will their next show look like? Bamford or no Bamford, who else might they wheel out?
Until the 2024 GE I’d always voted Conservative. I did vote Reform last time, partly as a protest vote against the Conservative government. To fully commit to Reform, including joining up, I’d like to see some names I respect move over, Bamford would certainly be an asset but Braverman & Jenrick would be amazing. I’d also like to see sine serious economic policies, I’m not convinced that the £20k tax allowance is realistic. They need to be speaking to the likes of Liam Halligan & Julian Jessop.