Reform UK’s £2.1m personalized mailout campaign sparks scrutiny over lack of transparency on donations, with Liberal Democrats calling for clarity on funding sources.
Reform UK Under Fire for Lack of Transparency Over Donations
The Liberal Democrats have publicly challenged Nigel Farage to give details of his party’s donations after calculating that Reform UK spent more than £2m on personalised letters to postal voters before the local elections.
Nigel Farage is a British politician and former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
Born on April 3, 1964, in Farnborough, England, he studied economics at the University of Oxford.
Farage served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 to 2020 and was a key figure in the Brexit campaign.
He led UKIP from 2006 to 2016 and again from 2016 to 2018.
Farage has been a vocal advocate for British independence from the EU, which led to the country's exit from the union in 2020.
The Cost of Personalised Mailouts
Reform UK sent two personalised direct mail messages from Farage to each of the 1.9 million people registered as postal voters for this round of local and mayoral elections across England, estimating this would cost about £2.1m. This is the latest example of Reform’s increased resources, particularly in recent months.
A Limited On-the-Ground Campaigning Infrastructure
Despite having a large membership, Reform appears to still have a limited on-the-ground campaigning infrastructure. The gap is filled during the local election campaign with large numbers of paid-for leaflets mailed to voters.
In March, Farage launched the party’s campaign with a rally, for which Reform hired out an arena in Birmingham that was decorated with carefully created props intended to convey the party’s message about a ‘broken’ country.
A Call for Clarity Over Funding Sources
Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, has written to Farage urging him to publicly rule out accepting any donations from wealthy donors linked to Russia or the Trump administration. She notes that Reform received only £281,000 in donations in the last set of publicly available figures for the final quarter of 2024.
Cooper’s letter requests clarity over the sources of funding for Reform UK’s local election campaign, noting the likely cost of the direct mail campaign and Reform’s reported donations. ‘The lack of transparency around your party’s funding is a serious concern,’ she writes.
Under electoral laws, individuals can only donate if they are on the UK electoral register. A change to the law passed under the Conservatives allowed people to do this even if they have lived outside the UK for more than 15 years, allowing Reform more scope to seek money from people based in places such as Monaco.
The Electoral Commission will not publish information on donations for the first quarter of 2025 until after polling day on 1 May. This means that voters will not know the potential sources of funding for your party’s local election campaign before they cast their votes.
