WORLD WORLDWIDE UK UNITED KINGDOM EUROPE - news journal UPDATE - (en) UK, ACG, Jackdaw: Reform UK: No Friend of the Working Class (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, claims to speak for the underdog and the

disenfranchised and aims to grab working class votes. But a quick glance
at that party and its backers shows that it is financed by billionaires
with their own objectives, not those of the working class and the poor.
---- Farage himself, however much he makes himself out to be a man of
the people, is from a privileged background. He was educated at one of
Britain's poshest public schools, Dulwich College, and at the age of
eighteen became a commodities trader in the City. He was a   member of
the Conservative Party until 1992.

Meanwhile he calls on journalists to get out
of their metropolitan bubble
and relate to "real people."
A millionaire, he is also the
highest-earning MP, having
made almost £1.2m a year from
his programmes on GB News.
This TV channel is co-owned
by hedge fund billionaire Paul
Marshall.

A visit to the USA on 17th
July, costing £32,000, after
the assassination attempt
on Trump, was financed by
Christopher Harborne, a crypto
investor based in Thailand.
Richard Tice, the main payroller
of Reform UK, a Reform UK
MP himself, and until recently
Reform leader until ousted by
Farage, has financed Reform
to the tune of several million
pounds. He donated at least
£500,000 during the recent
election. Like Farage, he is
from a privileged background.
He was educated at posh
Uppingham School. He is a
multi-millionaire and runs
the property investment firm
Quidnet Capital.

Another financer of Reform
is Robin Birley, educated at
the top public school Eton. He
owns an elite club in Mayfair,
frequented by Farage and
Boris Johnson. He has donated
£25,000 to Reform.

Another big donor is Zia Yusuf,
who has donated thousands
of pounds. He earnt £31
million from selling his luxury
concierge app Velocity Black
in 2023, and is now Reform
chairman. Richard Smith, who
owns a company supplying
electronic systems to the
aviation industry, bunged
Reform UK a sum of £50,000 in
June.

Reform UK also received
£10,000 from hedge-fund
millionaire Crispin Odey.
An investigation by the
Financial Times revealed
allegations of serious sexual
misconduct, which he denies.
Holly Vallance, former singer
and actor, is married to
billionaire property developer
Nick Candy. She donated
£50,000 to Reform in June.
Fitriani Hay, one of the biggest
racehorse owners and breeders,
similarly gave £50,000 to
Reform. Previously she had
funded Liz Truss's leadership
campaign in 2022.She is married
to James Hay, an energy
magnate owning £325 million.
Ben Habib, formally deputy cochairman of Reform, is another
privileged property millionaire.
He attended posh public school
Rugby. He eventually entered
the property business, after a
period as a financial analyst
for Lehman Brothers. He made
millions as chief executive
of First Property, and was
previously yet another funder
of the Conservative Party.
David Lilley gave £100,000
to Reform in June. He makes
his money from investing in
natural resources. He controls
a series of companies that own
12,000 hectares of farmland in
the Stavropol region of Russia,
which produces cereals and
oilseeds He is chief executive
of investment fund Drakewood
Capital.

Rupert Lowe, Reform MP, went
to another elite school, Radley
College, and then worked in
the City. He was appointed a
Director of Rutherford Health
in 2018 and Digme Fitness in
2017. Another Reform MP,
James McMurdock, worked in
the banking sector between the
early 2000s until 2024.

These are the "real people"
behind Reform UK, property
developers, City speculators
and elite members of the
Establishment.

  Reform UK is no friend to the
working class and the poor.
It wants to further privatise
the NHS, scrap environmental
controls and raise tax
thresholds. It despises the poor
it claims to represent. One of
its MPs, Lee Anderson, another
former Tory, sneered at people
using food banks, and then
later criticised nurses who were
forced to use food banks, saying
"they've got something wrong
with their own finances."

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