Reform’s money problem is getting harder to explain

Reform UK has another money problem. And this one comes with sunshine, skyscrapers and some very wealthy people in Dubai.

The Electoral Commission has confirmed it is considering information about fundraising events attended by Nigel Farage and senior Reform figures in Dubai last January, after an investigation by Babelfish News raised questions about who paid for them and whether that support should have been declared.

On its own, that would be serious enough. But it comes as Reform is already facing scrutiny over other aspects of its funding.

You start to see a pattern... and it’s not a particularly pretty one.

The latest questions centre on two events held during Farage’s trip to Dubai.

One was described by Reform UK deputy treasurer Amanda Gutkin as a “special evening invitation hosted by the Binghatti Family”, one of Dubai’s biggest property dynasties.

The other was a lunch reportedly paid for by Indian businessman Sunny Varkey, according to Bloomberg.

Here’s the thing. Political donations aren’t just envelopes stuffed with cash. If somebody provides goods, services, sponsorship or hospitality to a political party for free, or below the normal commercial price, that can count as a donation under electoral law.

And that matters for a very obvious reason.

We have rules about political money because we need to know who is funding our politicians, what they are giving them and where that support comes from. Democracy gets pretty murky, pretty quickly, when money disappears into the shadows.

Following the Babelfish investigation, Labour MP Phil Brickell wrote to the Electoral Commission asking it to examine the Dubai events.

He wants the Commission to establish whether goods, services or hospitality were provided to Reform in connection with the fundraising, whether they qualified as donations, and, if so, whether they were properly recorded and reported.

He also asks another rather important question: what fundraising actually took place at these events?

The Electoral Commission has now confirmed it received Brickell’s letter and is considering the matter under its regulatory remit.

That doesn’t mean wrongdoing has been established. It does mean there are questions serious enough for the regulator to consider.

And this isn't happening in isolation.

The Metropolitan Police is investigating allegations arising from a Channel 4 News undercover investigation in which two senior Reform aides were filmed discussing ways a potential £500,000 donation might be structured.

Separately, Farage has faced Electoral Commission scrutiny over a reported £5 million gift from cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne. The Metropolitan Police has also been examining whether payments made to Reform before the last election complied with donation laws, including donations linked to the mother of George Cottrell, a close friend of Farage.

One investigation can happen to any political party. Two might make you raise an eyebrow. When questions keep coming from different directions, we need to ask whether something bigger is going on.

Brickell puts it pretty well. Is this simply a case of a couple of bad apples, or is there a systemic culture around money and the rules within Reform?

That's the question.

Because political funding rules aren't annoying bits of bureaucracy dreamed up to spoil a nice lunch in Dubai. They exist to protect our democracy from hidden influence, including foreign influence.

We all have a stake in that.

Reform likes to sell itself as the outsider party coming to clean up British politics. Farage has built much of his political career on telling us that Westminster is rotten and the establishment can't be trusted.

Fine.

But you don't clean up politics by asking for fewer questions about your own money. You do it with transparency.

Who paid? How much? What for? Was it declared?

These aren't complicated questions.

And right now Reform seems to be accumulating rather a lot of them.

The regulators and police will establish whether any laws have been broken. That's their job. Ours is to keep asking the questions and dragging political money into the daylight.

Because democracy belongs to all of us. We should know who's paying for it...:)