Farage receives second £36m donation in two days for Reform

[Greyrock79]

Farage receives second £36m donation in two days.

Reform’s biggest donor Christopher Harborne matched record donation given on Friday by fellow cryptocurrency billionaire Ben Delo

Polling consistently shows that the majority of the electorate think Brexit was a mistake.

As for how people have been affected by the Brexit, the economic impact affects all of us in many ways. The consensus among economists is that our economy is considerably smaller now than it would have been if we had stayed in the EU. There is some disagreement amount the scale of the damage - estimates generally seem to vary between around 2-8%. I think the OBR's estimate is around 4%. But there is general agreement amongst the vast majority of economists that there has been a negative affect.

Of course, many people might not necessarily understand that Brexit is a significant factor in some of the economic pain that they are experiencing. But failing to recognise the impact of Brexit doesn't mean that they aren't directly affected by it.

If we accept the OBR figure of 4%, then that is going to have a very significant impact on all of us - this is just basic economics.

You didn’t bother to read the article did you? Or any other information.

The shortages have been going on for years. The EU is not stalling anything. This is part of sovereignty, self determination and independence. We don’t pay in to be a member, why do you think we should get the benefits of frictionless trade?

Reform want an independent sovereign nation with controlled borders, a lot of voters also want that, the two main parties didn"t want that, it is really that simple I think, the term "protest vote" is best kept for the Greens, or probably the Tories now because you are not voting for anything sensible just making a statement that is basically pointless anyway in our voting system.

There's been a fair few surveys of why people vote Reform. Basically it comes down to believing immigration is the root of all our problems and stopping the boats is the solution; thinking 'the other two' are rubbish and they may as well give someone else a chance; and the performative anti establishment nonsense of Reform attracting people who feel (correctly) the establishment is overlooking them.
A big chunk tend to be socially conservative, suspicious of woke, liberal lefties, but haven't done too well themselves under a long Conservative administration because they are poorer, with fewer opportunities and their neighbourhoods are neglected.

Because we originally voted for a "common market" not a political union and we are one of the largest economies in the world, if Germany (3rd or 4th largest in the world) leaves there is no more EU. Tariffs worked out so well for that other great global businessman didn"t they?

I think these donations followed the disastrous conference and interviews given by the leaders
It was apparent to everyone it was awful
Now they are saying the billionaires are expressing confidence.....?
Well who'd be confident after that?
They need to stop.throwing good money after bad.
If you are a philanthropist do something genuinely good with your money, when was the last time you assaulted a woman? Don't collude with it.
Don't waste your money and your energy. It's not going to improve.
Edit- no matter how badly you want to do your thing with crip toe. It won't get better.

If those were your reasons then fair enough, but one of the consequences of voting to leave is that we are no longer members and don’t have access to the benefits. Obviously for Leave voters that was a price worth paying, but you can’t complain about ‘red tape’ after the fact.

There is a Bill going through Parliament atm, to stop people who live abroad donating to British political Parties. Apparently it will be backdated to the date (25/3/26?) that the Reportit is based on was published. It looks as if Reform and their donors didn't bother to research properly.

They’re not o/s still. Seems uncertain whether they’ll have to return the money.

And that’s fine, but what else do Reform want? What’s their vision for healthcare, the economy, foreign policy, education, the environment? It’s not always easy to see the substance. I think it’s unclear what the Greens vision is, and I agree a fair amount of the popularity has been for the same reasons Reform have been popular - protest, a statement. Tories are in a bit of a quagmire but Kemi is getting better, not sure that would be a protest vote.

Yes, I heard about the possible backdating of the bill this morning. However, the person who I heard talking about it was rather more cynical than you. Rather than assuming that the donors had failed to do their research, she was suggesting that the announcements might never have been made in good faith anyway - she was basically pointing out that there would be substantial political mileage for Reform in being able to complain that the government and/or the establishment had prevented Reform from keeping the money that had been donated to them, all at no actual cost to the donors at all.

And of course, having some whopping great donations to talk about has the added benefit of moving the news cycle on from talking about the various criminal investigations which are currently being carried out into Reform's finances, as well as the assault at the Reform conference as well. Which is rather convenient for them.

So it might be that Reform will never get to keep the money because it was never actually the intention for them to receive it anyway. Who knows.

I don’t think do. They only did their own release because The Times were going to run a critical story.

Reform went to a rival paper to head that off a few days earlier. This was discussed on Times radio.

Again your ignorance and assumptions are astounding.

I’m not wasting my time giving you real examples of people losing their livelihoods due to Brexit or those not able to get medications they’ve been relying on for years. You obviously don’t give a shit.

Well done Brexiteer.

Well, like I said, who knows.

I'm aware that they allegedly broke it to the Telegraph because they realised that the Times was going to run a story on it. But we don't really know where the Times got their story from or who wanted them to have access to that information and for what purpose.

Your version doesn’t stack up with the order of events. In any case it’ll probably go to court and Reform will fight to keep it.

Of course they want to keep it, and Labour want to stop them from having it.

The benefits are less and less, the main players, Germany for example are swinging to the right politically, just a matter of time before more EU countries start making their own rules on border controls etc.

Just tell me how bands managed to tour in Europe before the EU.

And give me one example of a person you know losing their livelihood, a viable job or business not a free money bung to keep them in the political project, and starving or losing their home since Brexit.

Well, yes. Naturally they will want to keep it and Labour (and the other parties if they're honest) will want to stop them. I am not going to pretend that I know what a court might decide.

---

When it reached the Lords on 3 September, the Representation of the People Bill already had provision for the ban on c-money donations and cap on overseas donations to be retrospective to 25 March 2026.

It's not a response to Harborne & Delo's announcements this week.

You can find the Bill in its various stages here:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4080/publications

So not what you put in your earlier post. That they never intended for them to receive it.

As it happens, I was made redundant from a previous job because of Brexit - and yes, that was the specific reason cited by my former employer. Leaving the EU hit some sectors very hard.

I'm not going to pretend that the redundancy didn't come at a very good time for me personally or that things didn't actually work out very well for me. If I'm honest, I'm very grateful for it now as it gave me the nudge that I needed to do something a bit different, which has ultimately worked out very well for me. But my personal anecdotes don't tell the wider story of how Brexit has impacted on the economy.

Are you suggesting that you disagree with the consensus of most mainstream economists that Brexit has made our economy significantly smaller? Or are you saying that you don't really understand how a smaller economy actually impacts on the lives of ordinary people?

No, I said that the person I heard on TV this morning suggested that they might never have intended for Reform to keep it. From my perspective, that's a possibility but I don't think any of us can really know.

If Labour bans donations, I doubt it will prove consequence-free for them.

Who could forget Starmer’s plan to delay the May local elections, before performing the inevitable pirouette.

Yes it’s more of the same. I’m glad he didn’t win on that one - even though he ‘never loses a fight’.