Nigel Farage’s £72million war chest will have Labour and the Tories sweating

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GB News's Senior Political Commentator has given his take on Reform's hefty windfall

Has Nigel Farage now got enough money to buy the next general election? It is a question Labour and Tory bigwigs will be mulling over behind closed doors today.

The two £36million donations from cryptocurrency billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne would at first sight seem like it.

The pair say they want nothing from Reform in return for their stunning generosity and, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that must be taken at face value.

Perhaps they really do just want to give a leg up to a fellow crypto fan.

The Government had the chance to stop this with the Representation of the People Bill now going through Parliament by putting a cap on UK donations, and ministers will be regretting now they ducked it.

But if they act now it will only confirm what Reform keeps saying – that the traditional political class will conspire to do anything to stop them.

Communities Secretary Angela Raynor was a bit all over the place on this yesterday so it appears the government is stuffed on this one and Reform will get to keep that £72million.

The incoming rules will ban overseas donations above £100,000, impose stricter tests for corporate contributions and raise fines to £500,000 for violations.

Crucially, those regulations will be applied retrospectively to 25th March this year. To be able to give the money Messrs Delo and Harborne must have been living in this country and registered to vote from that date. Reform seems content that they were.

There will be a lot of huffing and puffing about our democracy being hawked off to the highest bidder and how a couple of super rich men have more money than sense, but that seems about it unless Labour does a massive U-turn.

Political donations have always been controversial. The Tories were bankrolled by big business and Labour by the unions. Both criticise the other for their sources of income.

But if political parties were not financed this way taxpayers must do it. And no one wants to see their hard-earned cash go to politicians they dislike.

Which is why changes to this system have proved so difficult. The unions didn’t like the idea of a cap because it would have curbed what they give to Labour; the Tories because the entrepreneurs they rely on would be similarly constrained.

This £72million will allow Reform to professionalise the party, hire 400 full-time local organisers in constituencies, and buy in some big bucks policy wonks to smooth over the rough edges on some of its current plans to make them more realistic.

But when polling day comes round the result is still in the hands of the voters, and Mr Farage will not be able to use the cash to follow Donald Trump’s lead and promise each of them $5,000.

Which is where having all this money may turn out to be a millstone around Reform’s neck on top of the others it is already poking its head through.

It is facing police, Electoral Commission and Parliamentary investigations into funding. A YouGov poll last week showed more than seven in 10 voters now say the party is sleazy. Reform insists it has done nothing wrong.

But the £5million gift Mr Farage got from Christopher Harborne is a lottery win to most of us, and tarnished his man of the people image.

Wavering voters may now see Reform as the party of billionaires and be turned off by that as they face daily struggles with the cost of living.

And if this backfires it will go to show that our democracy cannot be bought after all.