The treasurer of Reform UK has said that Elon Musk is among a “number of billionaires” interested in donating to Nigel Farage’s party, promising “political disruption like we have never seen before”.
Nick Candy told the Financial Times that the party will raise more funds than “any other political party” for grassroots campaigning, data and polling.
He also predicted Reform UK would have more members than Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives in three months.
He said: “We have a number of billionaires prepared to donate to the party, not just Elon.
“The Reform party is the disrupter – this is the seed round, the series A. This will be political disruption like we have never seen before.”
Farage and Candy met Musk at president-elect Donald Trump’s resort Mar-a-Lago in Florida earlier in December.
Candy, 51, who is married to Australian actor and singer Holly Vallance, said the founder of Tesla would be the “first of many wealthy donors legally allowed to donate”.
“Even the big Tory donors are calling me,” he told the Financial Times. “A lot of people will join us. The movement has started.”
Current electoral rules mean that if the tech billionaire was to donate to Reform UK, he would have to do so through one of his UK-based businesses.
Parties can accept donations from a number of sources including individuals on the UK electoral register or a UK-registered company.
The head of the Electoral Commission, Vijay Rangarajan, has called for the rules to be strengthened to “protect the electoral system from foreign interference”.
On Sunday, Commons leader Lucy Powell said there were no “immediate” plans to introduce further restrictions on overseas political donations.
She told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “We’ve no immediate plans to do that, but we do have a manifesto commitment to look more broadly at our elections regime in this country.”
Shadow cabinet minister Kevin Hollinrake said he would not seek to block Musk making a donation, but suggested he would like him to back the Tories instead.
He said: “I have great faith in the British public. I don’t think the British public could be easily bought. I think they’ll decide at the next election who they think the best party is to run this country. And I think they’ll choose Conservatives.”
Source: theguardian.com
