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Something truly extraordinary just happened in British politics. I’m not talking about Reform UK attracting £72 million from two donors in what is an unprecedented development. No. I’m talking about what happened next.
Because within hours of the two donations to Reform UK from the billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, Britain’s establishment — the same establishment that’s been trying to derail Reform throughout the summer — had a meltdown.
Astonishingly, the Labour government sent Angela Rayner around television studios on Sunday morning to not only declare that people “cannot buy their way into democracy” but warn that the government might even try to block one or both of the donations to Reform through tweaking legislation that could work retrospectively.
What does this mean? It means that potentially the Labour government and its allies in the House of Commons might now pass or amend legislation that requires money that has been lawfully donated under today’s rules to be returned.
In other words, this is the government of the day, the Labour government, openly talking about changing the rules and rigging the system so that it can retrospectively deprive financial support from its main rival. Along the way, the very same people who were perfectly happy to try and postpone elections are also lecturing the country about the need to “protect democracy”, and “maintain integrity” in politics. This is banana republic stuff. And millions of people will immediately see the hypocrisy.
Let’s start with a little history which more than a few people in Westminster appear to have forgotten. For decades now, Labour and the Tories completely dominated the political system by raising enormous sums of money.
Just look at data from the Electoral Commission. From 2021 until immediately before Reform received its two record-breaking donations, the Tories accepted roughly £150 million in reportable donations, while Labour accepted around £128 million.
Reform? Nowhere near that. Only about £40 million.
Now take an even longer-term view. Ever since the Electoral Commission began recording donations properly in this country, in 2001, the two established parties between them have received more than £1 billion in reportable donations and public funding — roughly £580 million for the Tories and £530 million for Labour.
Of the top twenty individual donors in British politics since 2001, no less than sixteen backed the two old parties, with ten backing Labour and six backing the Tories.
They include Unite, the trade union, giving Labour £60 million (!), Unison giving Labour £47 million, GMB giving Labour £41 million, Lord Sainsbury giving Labour £32 million, and Phoenix Partnership giving the Tories £15 million. Only one of the top twenty donors in British politics, until the last few days, supported Reform UK.
Where were the complaints about “big money in British politics” then? Where was the moral outage about how the system was being distorted by two enormous machines, Labour and Tory, that could vastly outspend and crush any challenger? There was none. There was only silence.
But perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of this entire spectacle is watching the Labour Party pose as the defender of integrity in politics. This from the Labour Party that was more than happy to only recently accept £4 million from Quadrature Capital — a London hedge fund whose investment vehicles are based in … the Cayman Islands!
This from the Labour Party that in recent years took big money from the likes of Lord Sainsbury, Lakshmi Mittal, Gary Lubner, and John Mills, among many more. Not to mention the truly grotesque sight of Labour politicians coming to power in 2024 after promising to clean up politics only to then help themselves to freebies —including suits, glasses, and accommodation — from Lord Alli.
Nor is this just about formal donations. Because for decades now, big money has also flowed into the Labour movement indirectly through a much larger ecosystem of politically-aligned think-tanks, foundations, campaign groups, policy groups, and networks — organisations like Labour Together, Progress, IPPR, the Fabian Society, among others — which have also attracted millions from wealthy individuals.
Take an organisation like Labour Together, which was fined in 2021 for failing to properly declare roughly £740,000 of donations. Its wealthy backers include the likes of hedge-fund manager Martin Taylor and Gary Lubner, who have poured millions into helping an organisation whose goal is to help Labour win elections.
Apparently, that is all fine. Nothing to see here.
But two businessmen decide to give big money to Reform so that the party can level the playing field with the establishment? Suddenly, Labour MPs like Angela Rayner, who also happens to be on course to lose her seat to Reform UK at the next election, are lecturing the country about “integrity” and “decency”.
Rayner even claimed, with a straight face, that only the Labour Party has “seriously vetted” its supporters. This from the very same Labour Party that is so good at “vetting” it decided to appoint Jeffrey Epstein’s close friend, Peter Mandelson, as our country’s Ambassador to the United States of America!
Not to mention the anti-corruption Labour minister who was later investigated for corruption, the Labour homelessness minister who was forced to resign after evicting her own housing tenants so she could increase the rent, and Angela Rayner herself who before giving the country lessons about “integrity” was forced to resign after dodging tax on her own property.
And the Tories are just as bad.
Yesterday, Kemi Badenoch declared that while you can “buy staff and advertising … you can’t buy judgement or integrity”. This from the same Tory party that for much of the last twenty years handed out peerages and other honours to donors as though it was handing out confetti at a wedding, using the system to reward its own backers.
Only a few years ago, it was revealed that 15 of the last 16 Tory party treasurers who had given at least £3 million to the Tory party were given a seat in the House of Lords. Another investigation found that of the Tory party’s 20 biggest donors since 2010, who donated more than £1.5 million, more than half of them, 55 per cent, received an honour or title. As a former Tory chairman told one newspaper:
“The truth is the entire political establishment knows this happens and they do nothing about it … The most telling line is, once you pay your £3m, you get your peerage.”
And many other Tory donors, strangely, have gone on to win enormous contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds. I don’t know about you but if Kemi Badenoch is reading this newsletter then I’d suggest she spend less time lecturing others about judgement and more time apologising for her own party’s appalling record.
Whether it’s the Tories or Labour, once you strip away all the noise in Westminster, all the faux outrage, then what is really happening becomes crystal clear. For decades, the two big parties have essentially operated as what the academics Richard Katz and Peter Mair once described as ‘cartel parties’ — political parties that literally function like drug cartels, using the resources of the state to try and limit and control their competitors, ensure their own success and continued dominance over the system.
Labour and the Tories, the Uniparty, then used their tight grip over the system to impose a draconian political project — mass immigration, mass Net Zero, mass taxes, mass debt, mass welfare — that might chime with the interests of their MPs and donors but has turned out to be utterly disastrous for ordinary people.
But now, today, they can sense this dominance is under threat, if not coming to an end. They are rapidly losing control of a system they have become used to treating like their personal fiefdom. They are losing control of the political debate. They are losing support from millions of hardworking, law-abiding British people who have had enough. And now they are also losing one of the only advantages they have left — their control over money in politics.
That’s why this row matters.
There’s no doubt £72 million is an enormous amount of money. Personally, for the record, I would support rules to prevent money that is genuinely coming from overseas from influencing elections here in Britain.
And if Westminster wants to have a universal cap on all political donations then let’s have that debate. Let’s set a level and apply it evenly and fairly to everybody, and do so prospectively, so that everybody knows the rules before they play the game.
But that is not what the current debate is about. Labour, the Tories, and no doubt the other parties in Westminster are trying to change the rules retrospectively so they can try and block or contain an anti-establishment revolt that is only getting stronger.
They have failed to defuse the challenge from Reform UK through the battle of ideas and good faith debate. Nigel Farage and his party have won two consecutive sets of nationwide local elections. And despite an onslaught of attacks against Reform by the political and media class throughout the summer — variously targeting Nigel Farage and his closest aides — Reform is still neck-and-neck with Labour in the polls.
So, with Project Fear 2 failing to cut through, all they have left is to try and deprive Reform UK from the same kind of financial support they have been more than happy to enjoy for many decades. Labour and the Tories were entirely comfortable with major donations when they were the ones receiving them. But now the money is flowing the other way — they want to change the rules.
That is not democracy. It is rigging the system. It is using lawfare when one is clearly losing the argument out there in the country. And everybody can see it.
Reform is no longer just an electoral threat. With £72 million strengthening its election war chest, the party now has the resources to seriously challenge an establishment that has grown accustomed to setting the rules of the game.
With that kind of money, Reform can now put together a plan for building and attracting the ‘broad coalition’ of voters I’ve mapped out previously. It can develop a serious strategy for targeting groups of voters that remain under-represented in its electorate — non-voters, Tory voters, working-class Labour voters, younger voters, and women. It can appoint campaign managers in every seat, invest heavily in data science, and bankroll major campaign tours around the country.
And, crucially, it can deploy an enormous amount of brain power — policy, legal, media specialists — to develop a programme for government that is ready to be implemented on day one of coming to power and a plan for outflanking or taking on The Blob, The Establishment, The Bureaucracy, that will work overtime to try and stop this programme from becoming reality.
If Labour and the Tories cannot beat the challenge from Reform at the ballot box then that’s on them. But the one thing they should not be allowed to do is rig the game while trying. Because it should be voters, not cartels in Westminster, who are the ones who decide who governs Britain.
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Rayner tried to deflect the size of union donations by saying it was made up of many individual donations. But the collective clout is wielded by the unions and we have observed their control over the Labour .Party . I suggest Reform policy should make political donations when you join a union an opt in option , rather than an opt out option as it is currently . Getting out of this donation involves a bit of effort and paperwork but surely now is the time for a bit of publicity on this front for ex Labour supporters who might still be supporting Labour financially .
I am very uncomfortable about this retrospective application of legislation Labour are employing . It’s bending rules to fit circumstances and allows them to stop anything they don’t like. Surely a judicial review would be in order given all the evidence Matt has set out , if Labour try this on which they certainly will if they can get away with it. This is democracy under threat , or an exacerbation of an erosion that has been going on for some time
Thanks Matt, great content!
And, of course, Labour changed the electoral rules applying to the Manchester mayoral election just weeks before it happened - that seemed to sink without trace of mention in the MSM.
As you point out, it’s the utterly blatant nature of what Labour (and the UniParty) are trying to do! They really DO think we’re stupid.