On Friday Ben Delo, a 42-year-old businessman – and convicted criminal – donated £36m to Reform UK. That works out to £1m for every month between now and the latest possible date for the next general election. It brings the total Delo has donated to the party this year alone to £44m.
Not to be outdone, less than 24 hours later, Christopher Harborne, the 63-year-old billionaire, pitched in with another £36m donation. That’s a cool £72m over one weekend. The Guardian’s senior political correspondent Peter Walker, says: “This is potentially a game changing amount.
It’s more in total than the big four or five parties spent altogether in the 2024 general election.” Both donors are Oxbridge educated businessmen who made their money in cryptocurrency and have largely been living abroad. Both say they’re doing it to ‘level the playing field’ in UK politics. But, asks Nosheen Iqbal, what do such eye-watering donations do to our democracy?
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