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NIGEL FARAGE’S finances have been boosted, and his man-of-the-people image tarnished, after a billionaire property developer gifted his Reform UK party at least a million pounds.
Nick Candy announced the donation at a photocall with Reform’s owner and leader as the party continues to surge in opinion polls.
Mr Candy confirmed he would be giving a “seven-figure sum” to Reform, which recently grown to more than 100,000 members, and that he has been appointed party treasurer.
Mr Farage denied that this meant Reform was now the party of the super-rich.
“No, we haven’t sold a single peerage,” he said.
“We need ammunition. We can’t fight big national campaigns without the money.”
Mr Candy’s life as treasurer will be made much easier if US multi-billionaire Elon Musk follows through on reports that he will give one hundred million dollars to Reform.
Mr Farage confirmed that the party would accept such a donation if offered, but not that it actually had been.
Reform has recently secured high-profile defections from the Conservatives including hard right ex-MP Andrea Jenkyns and leading activist Tim Montgomerie.
The party will not, however, be welcoming ex-home secretary Suella Braverman — at least, not just yet.
Her husband, businessman Rael Braverman, has just signed up, but Ms Braverman is holding out.
“I am not defecting,” she said. “My husband doesn’t tell me how to do my job, and I don’t tell him how to pick a political party.”
Reform has gained significant ground since the general election and now polls slightly behind or slightly ahead of Labour.
Polling guru John Curtice said: “If voters still aren’t convinced that the Conservatives have learned the lessons of the last government, and if Labour are not turning around the economy and the health service — voters’ principal concerns — [then] they’ve got plenty of other places to go to, one of which is Reform.”
Labour’s vote, he added, was “being scattered to the four winds,” with 6 per cent of the general election support going to each of the Tories, Reform, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.
