2 private donations of £36m each to one political party - is this the future of democracy in a world at the mercy of tech bros?

[IwantToRetire]

Not particularly interested in discussing Reform. As anyone who wants to do that could set up a thread just like there is one about the Greens.

Of course the money could just be frittered away, but do these donations create an imbalance in terms of other parties having a voice, not just now, but when there is the next General Election.

For info (and there may be others) short bios about each man who has donated. Although, if as stated, they don't expect to decide party policy, maybe their personal history doesn't matter.

https://news.sky.com/story/ben-delo-and-christopher-harborne-who-are-reform-uks-two-mega-donors-13584792

Edited to add: I would ask this question if such donations had been made to any other Party, whether Labour, Tory, Greens etc..

If I had a spare 36m quid, I can think of few better ways to disburse it, than in the pursuit of kicking out this shower of shit government.

Very true. Awful lot and their demise can't come soon enough.

Nigel Farage has threatened to cut off Labour’s union funding if Reform UK wins the next general election.

In an increasingly bitter row over party funding, Mr Farage hit out at calls from trade unions to limit individual donations while creating a separate set of rules for them.

Writing for The Telegraph, he said neither of Reform’s main donors – the cryptocurrency billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne – had asked for or would receive anything in return for the £36m donations they had both pledged to his party.

“If anyone is giving money to do political bidding, it’s the trade unions,” he said. “So I would just warn the Labour Party here and now: If you try and ban our donors, we in government would certainly ban funding from the trade unions.
“I don’t want to go down that route. But it is something we would be prepared to do.”

Why do you think these donors have been so generous to Reform?

Empty threats as Reform won't be in power anytime soon.

Always has been by the lobbying system, big business or the unions

The same reason other parties get donations.

There goes underestimation again, and we know how that plays out.

So Unions donate to Labour because they believe Labour will support the interests of their workers and businesses donate to the Tories because they believe that the Tories will support the interests of businesses. What interests do you think those big donors want Reform to support?

Pandora’s box has been opened, I’m afraid.

Maybe something called democracy.

It’s an interesting logic that believes the motivation of large donors is promoting democracy when their actions pervert it. I guess I should be happy about it because it’s likely to put off floating voters.

The actions of Labour trying to cap other parties' donations whilr preserving their own should definitely put off floating voters. You're right.

The donation is legitimate so I can hardly see how it's going to put off floating voters. Rayner's intervention, on the other hand, might influence floating voters. Anyone but her to kick start this and all that.

How do huge sums coming from overseas promote UK democracy? These are people who don't want to pay tax in our country but think they should have a say in how its run!

Lots of things are legitimate that leave a bad taste in people’s mouths. Take you and unions for example @LuckyHazelFox.

Reform will mot win the next GE I am afraid. Peddling hate only gets a party so far. I think their maximum core support has been reached. I suppose the £72m could buy them a lot more online shills, so there is that.

Past tense. Lived overseas. I would have thought Labour had way more things to worry about but I guess running a country is harder than they thought. They never can seem to get it right, after years in opposition. As with their supporters, they don't like other parties getting a look in.

There goes the Green party's chances then.

People find these donations vulgar and undemocratic I think. There is a lot of support for caps. This quck survey from YouGov showed that. It is an ongoing survey but this was how things stood yesterday:

Can you list three things each donor has done to ‘pervert democracy’, please?

Delo lives in Hong Kong and Harborne lives in Thailand.

Not anymore. They’re residents here.

With plans to move to the UK.

In April Ben Delo said that he was considering moving back to the UK. When did that happen? I understand that Harborne has also purportedly moved back but in June on official documents his address was still noted as overseas. So when did Harborne move back?