Amina Taylor | Reform’s mega windfall threatens Britain’s democracy

Britain’s democracy is for sale. Right-wing party Reform has received a record-breaking £72m in donations from two crypto billionaires. We should all collectively be very afraid.

There used to be a time gone by in global politics where the UK had its issues with lobby groups and funding and the appropriation of power but we always took solace in the fact that British politics wasn’t the stinking swamp, the putrid pond of US influence for hire. In a nutshell, we could take some pride in the fact this was Westminster, not Washington.

For just a moment, we fooled ourselves into believing, because we did not have a public history of billionaires and oligarchs overtly buying our politicians, that we were safe. We’re not naive. As potential voters, there’s always been the understanding that the right backer in your political corner could grease a few wheels but the Brits always kept it looking above board; a knowing nod and a wink, the understanding that one could not just simply flaunt the subversion of democracy; it had to be classy, dahling!

Now even that pretence of decency has left the building and this moment should scare us all.

It was not simply the scale of the donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform. Look more closely at the individuals who are attempting to circumvent the British political system. For, make no mistake , that is precisely what is being attempted here. Reform has shown they are patently for sale. The going rate used to be £5 million previously - and we’ll get back to that tawdry affair in a moment. But, let’s take a second to look at the folks behind this massive gift.

Enter Ben Delo, cryptocurrency tycoon and co-founder of BitMEX. Yes, I too have no idea who this guy is but his dropping a whopping £36 million into the coffers of Reform saying he wanted to ‘create a level playing field’. His donation was subsequently matched by Christopher Harborne, another Crypto bro and a man who backed Reform in the past.

We can all guess that, privately, the other major political parties in the United Kingdom would’ve been wishing they received this version of an early Christmas present. So there is that sense of both wishing this happened to your party but knowing that the future of democracy is in danger if Reform is allowed to let this happen unchallenged.

This financial windfall has ignited an intense debate in the corridors of power about the future of party funding. Labour is pushing to tighten residency rules and perhaps push for a retrospective £100,000 cap on donations from British citizens living abroad, but Reform is pointing out that this clearly would be legislation aimed specifically at its finances. And, though I hate to side with anything Nigel Farage and Richard Tice have to say, they would be correct in technically not breaking existing laws but certainly going against the spirit of what was previously on the books.

I think the reason the government hasn’t put a stop to this immediately is two-fold. First, you may well be closing the door to your very own Reform-style crypto windfall and secondly, Reform will be making any moves to block these donations and issue of the party being targeted instead of a system that’s broken being fixed.

You don’t have to cast your mind back very far to remember when Nigel Farage himself had to call a by-election after being investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Committee on a £5 million donation to the party via Farage himself. That investigation is still ongoing. So this move to add £72 million to the Reform bottom line is the political equivalent of showing the establishment the middle finger. The message is clear - you guys continue to squabble over small change while we bring in the big bucks.

What many Reform supporters and perhaps wider political analyst have not fully examined is the fact there is no such thing as a free lunch. Billionaires do not simply give over this type of donation without strings being attached at some stage down the line. In the case of these crypto billionaire Bros, it’s pretty straightforward. Nigel Farage and Reform have long pushed crypto deregulation as a part of their political ethos.

So it would make perfect sense for those with the most to gain from a deregulated crypto market to back the party who has their best interests at heart. It would not surprise you if a tobacco company backs the candidate calling for the repeal of the smoking ban or a fast food giant urging deregulation of the market, so this is just par for the political course.

The silver lining here is Reform leaders and members have very different ideas about how they will spend their £72 million windfall. Farage’s plan to use some of that money to hire hundreds of campaign managers and election consultants in key constituencies has not gone down well with the rank-and-file.

A spokesperson has dismissed any thoughts of a squabble over the most efficient and effective way to spend this money but, if this is the energy even before the cash hits the coffers, something tells me this is not the end of this discussion and, in typical Reform style, we’ll hear all about it on GB News or in another bought and paid for media segment.

In the meantime, for those of us who are concerned about the future of our democracy, do remember that we still have Power. The unsuccessful in the end Jeremy’s Corbyn‘s people power campaign generated funding for his run with members of the public chipping in what little they had simply because they believed in the man and his mission.

The Greens are experiencing a similar revival and independent candidates are hitting the ground running to show that it is ideas and principles over big cheques. There is a reason why lobby groups like AIPAC are losing ground in the United States. Until billionaires can circumvent the Democratic process altogether, they still have to depend on people buying their particular version of politics.

If that is soundly rejected at polling time then, despite the overwhelming obstacles they might face in the glare of Mega Money, we will still see the emergence of a few strong political voices that are definitely not for sale.

Amina Taylor is a journalist and broadcaster. She is the former editor of ‘Pride’ magazine and works as producer, presenter and correspondent with Press TV in London.