The reforming party of Nigel Farage is launching a desire to collect funds from rich offshore donors in low -tax jurisdictions, in particular Monaco, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland, taking advantage of the British lax financing rules to strengthen its boxes.
The right -wing populist party seeks to collect funds from British expatriates who can donate on their own name as well as rich foreigners with British companies, which can be used to channel donations, said reform treasurer Nick Candy.
Candy, a real estate developer, told Financial Times that the effort would also include places such as the island of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. “We will do events in restaurants, private people from people and yachts,” he said.
He added that the reform had “no problem raising funds to people who want to help.”
“You must be on the British electoral register or in the electoral register abroad or having a British commercial company,” said Candy. “There are a lot of people in Monaco, Switzerland, the island of Man, Guernsey, who can meet these two criteria to make a donation.”
The fundraising campaign occurs as a Farage, better known for its success as a Brexit activist, is trying to convert the reform into an electoral force capable of seriously challenging the next general elections, which is expected in 2029.
The first test of the reform will come next week, because it hopes to carry out major gains during the local elections and mayors of May 1 through England, as well as during the by -election of the parliamentary seat of Runcorn.
Candy said he had personally led fundraising for the Runcorn by -election with £ 200,000 on his own money.
But since he won five seats in Parliament last July, the Farage Party has not yet disclosed big tickets of big tickets when he linked to the Labor Party in power in the survey and was preliminary on the Conservatives, the traditional British party of the right.
The reform collected £ 280,000 in the last quarter of 2024, the most recent period for which figures are available, compared to the conservatives, who have raised 2 million pounds sterling, and the work, which obtained 1 million pounds sterling.
Candy, who became treasurer in December, said that in the first quarter of this year, the party had obtained millions of books “and we have just started.”
“The biggest conservative donors speak to us and they are ready to go to the reform, but this change will be easier to make once they will see the results on May 1,” said Candy, although he refused to name names.
Candy said he expected around 20 people to grant 1 million pounds to the reform before the next general elections.
The reform treasurer said he went to the United Arab Emirates “every two weeks” in business, and that last week there was a donation of £ 100,000 from an expatriate who has a financial company based in the United Kingdom.
He added that he had a meeting with a framework of the energy sector last week, which later donated £ 100,000 and said that he would give up to 1 million pounds sterling to the party.
The reform aimed at donors from the petroleum and gas sector who were “very disillusioned,” said Candy, due to the high tax level that the United Kingdom is currently applying to industry benefits. The reform has criticized the Net Zero objective of the United Kingdom, which, according to Farage, will recently be “next Brexit”.
The offshore funding campaign has aroused criticism from Tories, which find it difficult to push frage and reform after losing power last year in their worst electoral defeat of all time.
“Farage pulls pints in Runcorn for cameras, but he prefers to raise toasts in Monaco,” said a conservative figure. “These are all flat caps in the Merseyside and the flat whites in Monte Carlo. The reform wants the vote of the ordinary man, but it is the offshore account which receives the follow -up call. ”
Candy has said that in recent years, Great Britain has “had the greatest brain flight of all time” because of the rich residents who leave the types of jurisdictions that the reform aims in its fundraising campaign.
He quoted an FT interview with the Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris who blamed “years of incompetence” by the Conservatives for the tax changes which led him to leave the United Kingdom for Italy and Abu Dhabi.
The conservatives have told government that they would abolish the favorable non-domic-UK tax regime, a political work implemented thereafter.
“Non-Domains don’t want to leave, they just have better options these days,” said Candy, adding that “when they leave, they don’t come back”. Candy said he was losing taxes in the United Kingdom.
Earlier this year, the reform crowned a donation from Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and advisor to the American president Donald Trump.
Unwelcome discussions with Musk, who has since embittered on frage, drew attention to the fact that the British electoral system allows foreigners to donate to British parties as long as money is given by a company recorded in the United Kingdom.
There is no limit on the amount of money which can be given in this way, or by British nationals in their own name. However, there are strict expenditure rules during the campaign period when approaching elections.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Prime Minister on ethical standards has called on the government to limit donations from companies to the profits they had made in the United Kingdom in the past two years.
British nationals living abroad for more than 15 years were not previously authorized to make a donation or to vote, but the Tories suppressed the prohibition in 2022 before the general elections of 2024.
