Is £72 million enough to get Nigel Farage into Downing Street?
Reform has been given £72 million by two crypto billionaires. Is this enough for them to spend their way into power at the next general election?
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What’s the story?
How much does it cost to become Prime Minister?
That's the experiment Nigel Farage and Reform UK seem to be running, having received political donations of £72 million from two crypto billionaires.
Ben Delo, one of the donors was convicted in 2022 in the US after failing to prevent money laundering in his cryptocurrency business, and later pardoned by Donald Trump.
The second donor is Christopher Harborne, who previously gave Farage the £5 million donation for ‘personal security’ which is subject to a Parliamentary Standards inquiry.
"It's like London buses – you wait all day for a £36 million donation to come along, and then two come along at once," says Jon Sopel.
"But is it cynical, is it skeptical, to follow the money and ask what they are getting in return?"
Emily Maitlis says it is "delicious" that Reform, which frames itself as the "people's party" is being propped up by the funds of the super-rich.
The right-wing press spent days tearing into Keir Starmer for accepting a gift of £2,500 in spectacles, but has celebrated these enormous donations to Reform.
Labour and The Conservatives, while both have enjoyed large donations in their time, have both kept in touch with their core voters, Jon says, both being financed by the rich, and their own initiatives.
"With Reform, I've never seen a party with such a gap between those who own the party, the two crypto kings, and the red-wall voters in constituencies around the Midlands and the Northwest who vote for them," he says.
Why does Reform love crypto so much?
Richard Tice has previously threatened to sack the governor of the Bank of England if it does not soften its approach to the crypto industry. A Reform government, Jon says, is "everything these billionaires ever wanted".
Nigel Farage urged the Bank of England to scrap its plans to launch its own bitcoin currency, deregulate the industry in the UK and allow others to launch their own digital currency.
Reform, should it come to power, has pledged to tax crypto currency at just 10%.
"The reason why I think it is so often seen as quite a nefarious financial service is because it doesn't really produce anything," Maitlis says.
"It generates no earnings, no dividends. It's extraordinarily speculative, and you can see crypto rise and fall without understanding why that's happened.
"There is very little consumer protection, and frankly, you get a lot of fraud and a lot of scams because there is virtually no transparency."
Maitlis says the lack of transparency in the crypto world may be precisely why it is so appealing to Tice, Farage and the Reform party.
"Crypto has virtually no checks and balances on it. You don't know where the money is coming from. You don't know what it was used for. You don't know how it's been potentially laundered. You don't know if it's coming from overseas," she adds.
"We know virtually nothing about it when it enters the monetary food chain here, and yet you are still seeing a party that's already said it is going to make regulation on crypto negligible."
Even Reform MPs haven’t been able to answer questions over whether Delo and Harborne are UK residents.
"If you are a con man or you're a crook, you want to deal in crypto because it's so hard to track down where the origins of it are," Jon says.
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What can Reform get with its £72m crypto donations?
In 2024, the Liberal Democrats are believed to have spent around £5.6 million on their campaign for the general election, winning 72 seats in the House of Commons.
For the Lib Dems, The News Agents say, that was an "extraordinary" return on investment.
"But is this £72 million actually going to pull more people into voting for the party?" Maitlis asks.
"On one hand, 72 million probably gets you a lot of good technology, a lot of good staff and bumps up people's wages.
"But does it actually work on the British public? Would two very rich men putting their own money into it actually be the thing that brought the public to vote for a party?"
Money, Jon says, is the "engine oil that keeps the internal combustion engine turning".
But what price an election without momentum and interest?
When the next general election rolls around, voters everywhere can expect to see an enormous amount spent by Reform on advertising online and in real life, meaning its message and promises will reach more people than ever before.
Can Reform now spend its way into power?
Richard Tice has said the millions would put Reform "on a level playing field" with the major political parties, and that government plans to cap donations to £100,000 shows Andy Burnham and Labour are "terrified" of the party.
"There is every chance the government could tell Reform to hand back the money, and there is also every chance that Reform will say 'no f**king way'," says Maitlis.
If the planned government cap on donations were made retroactive, it could also give Reform more ammunition to its claims that it is being targeted by what it often refers to as the "establishment".
"These two guys have donated the money, and the donations have been declared," says Jon.
"The danger for the Conservatives and the Labour is that if they move against these donations, it will look like they're ganging up against them if they have followed the rules for these particular gifts."
But can £72 million really buy an election for Nigel Farage?
"You've got to have policies and ideas, but it doesn't half help if you've got the money that can do everything else," Jon says.
"With £72 million, you can start really investing in the constituencies that, if you're Reform, think will really matter.
"That is how election campaigns are fought these days."