AIBU? Billionaires donating £72 million to Reform

Making it easier to do business is one thing; stripping away protections for workers, consumers and the environment is another.

And we’re talking about Crapto-billionaires here, including one who doesn’t even live in the UK, pouring millions into a political party. I’m not sure why their influence over British policy is somehow more wholesome than trade unions representing millions of people who actually work here.

Billionaires are the problem. We could all stand against them but people are unfortunately too stupid to realise that we are being pitted against each other.

but yes please let’s get back to talking about a couple trans people in sports and all the illegal immigrants that are ruining our lives.

But Reform aren’t uniquely victimised, the rules are backdated to March 2026, when the changes were announced, for absolutely all political parties.

I genuinely don’t think the optics are bad - or at least not to anyone who understands that this is standard practice when tax loops are closed, for clearly, pragmatic sensible reasons, in my opinion.

Rayner won’t get her wish though. Without pulling the current legislation. I don’t think Burnham will do that, if he has any sense.

How do you know these billionaires don’t also give massive charitable donations?

It’s up to them where they donate their money, just because you don’t agree with it doesn’t make it wrong. Who are you? The charity donation Police?

YABU.

I vote Labour but I am very uncomfortable about the influence the trade unions have on party policy. Although the amounts of money are different surely the influence is comparable?

Yup it’s their money, unless you are directly buying votes with that money I don’t really see the problem and I’m not a reform voter.

I guess if people feel like their should be a cap on spending and money should only come from general taxation you can make that argument.

To the general public it looks bad especially if they suddenly feel these rules are sooooo very important all of a sudden after an opposition party gets a massive donation.

But if you look at who donated to the Labour Party in 2024, they got £4 million of one individual donor firm. Why was no one up in arms about this? So if Labour do make this law retrospective, I assume they’ll be giving that back….

Why would people stand against billionaires? What crimes are billionaires committing?

I’m not sure you’re right about public opinion on this one. The polling shows very clearly that the majority of the public are against enormous donations from very wealthy individuals, and would look favourably on any party who capped donations: https://www.transparency.org.uk/news/public-demand-clear-cap-big-donations-now

If anything, I think the public would have liked the Representation of the People’s Act to go further than it does.

I get why certain politicians want to spin this, but if the legislation follows the Rees Principles, I think alot of people will see that as pragmatic and reasonable.

The difference is that we know Reform are keen on low taxation and reducing/eliminating regulation, which would of course massively benefit a billionaire. Labour tend towards more taxation and regulation - so there must be another reason for a huge donation. I would be keen to know more about the circumstances, but I would be far less dubious about the intent.

Oh for the days when the stupidly rich set up schools, hospitals and libraries with their fortunes.

Labour was formed by the trade unions (the workers and those who wanted to improve workers' rights) so being uncomfortable with the trade unions' involvement in the Labour party is a bit odd.

The unions will be capped too then surely.

Surely too many worker protections and making it impossible to fire someone just makes things harder for businesses. The same thing with net zero zealotry and energy prices.

I personally would support a cap on lump-sum donations, even if Union's were included.

I am not sure if this is a genuine question, or an attempt at party political point scoring, but the polling shows that the majority of Labour voters still support a cap, even if the trade unions are included: How might a cap on donations affect political party income in the UK? - House of Commons Library

Rather it’s party political point scoring from Rayner and the unions. They want to be exempt.

No they won't have to return the money from a donor registered in the Cayman Islands because the retrospective date begins after that donation was received.

Cash donations are cash donations.

Maybe. But I don't speak for Angela Raynor, or the Unions - although I do think it's vaguely ridiculous to compare the donations made up from thousands of ordinary working people with unprecedentedly large lump-sum donations from two private indviduals who until very recently didn't even choose to live in our country.

I just think these kind of enormous donations from super rich individuals are obscene and morally indefensible, and if capping them has to mean Union donations are capped too, then so be it.

And if the only defence Reform have is, 'but what about the Unions?' then I think that's a really bad look for them.

You can’t carve out one party Labour as the only one to get millions. Ik they’ll try but hopefully the other parties will see how poor that is and apply caps to all.

Reform has a policy of cutting CGT on crapto transactions - saving their new donors quite a lot of money.

Perhaps Farage has promised to follow Trump and drop money laundering investigations. That might be handy.

Lol. If you think reform voters will agree then I doubt it. I watch a guy who goes to pubs and high streets and asks basic questions. Like what’s the capital of England, or what’s 100+100. They can’t answer!

But we can't bend our democracy in response to what 'reform voters' will or won't think. Applying the Rees Principles is standard for the kind of legislation which closes tax loopholes etc - for obvious reasons, because otherwise there is a big rush of money just before the legislation comes into force.

There are certain Reform voters who will always blindly defend anything and everything Reform do - that's up to them. But there are plenty of other voters who are sick of Reform's entitled whining - that's why Farage's personal favourability ratings have taken such an enormous plunge.

And the simple fact of the matter is, if we don't want big money to pollute our democracy, then we have to take action to stop it. As far as I'm concerned a cap on donations is long overdue.