Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party is launching a drive to raise funds from wealthy offshore donors in low-tax jurisdictions including Monaco, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland, taking advantage of Britain’s lax funding rules to bolster its coffers.
The rightwing populist party is looking to raise money from British expatriates who can donate in their own name as well as rich foreigners with UK businesses, which can be used to funnel donations, Reform’s treasurer Nick Candy said.
Candy, a property developer, told the Financial Times the effort would also encompass places such as the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. “We’ll do events in restaurants, people’s private homes and on yachts,” he said.
He added that Reform had “no issue raising money from any people who want to help”.
“You have to be on the UK electoral register or the overseas electoral register or have a UK trading company,” Candy said. “There are plenty of people in Monaco, Switzerland, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, who can meet both of those criteria to donate.”
The fundraising drive comes as Farage, best known for his success as a Brexit campaigner, is trying to convert Reform into an electoral force capable of seriously contesting the next general election, which is expected in 2029.
Reform’s first test will come next week as it hopes to make major gains at the May 1 local and mayoral elections across England, as well as at the Runcorn parliamentary seat by-election.
Candy said he had personally led fundraising for the Runcorn by-election with £200,000 of his own money.
But since winning five seats in parliament last July, Farage’s party has yet to disclose big ticket donations even as it has tied with the governing Labour party in polling and moved ahead of the Conservatives, Britain’s traditional party of the right.
Reform raised £280,000 in the final quarter of 2024, the most recent period for which figures are available, compared with the Tories, who raised £2mn, and Labour, who secured £1mn.
Candy, who became treasurer in December, said that in the first quarter of this year the party had secured millions of pounds “and we’ve only just got going”.
“The biggest Tory donors are talking to us and they are ready to make the switch to Reform but that switch will be easier to make once they see the results on May 1,” Candy said, though he declined to name names.
Candy said he expected about 20 individuals would give £1mn each to Reform before the next general election.
The Reform treasurer said he travelled to the UAE “every other week” on business, and last week received a £100,000 donation from an expat there who has a UK-based finance business.
He added that he had a meeting with an energy sector executive last week who subsequently donated £100,000 and indicated he would give up to £1mn to the party.
Reform was targeting donors in the oil and gas sector who were “very disillusioned”, Candy said, because of the high level of taxation the UK currently applies to the industry’s profits. Reform has criticised the UK’s net zero target, which Farage has said recently will be the “next Brexit”.
The offshore funding drive sparked criticism from the Tories, who are struggling to fend off Farage and Reform after losing power last year in their worst election defeat ever.
“Farage pulls pints in Runcorn for the cameras but he’d rather be raising toasts in Monaco,” said one Tory figure. “It’s all flat caps in Merseyside and flat whites in Monte Carlo. Reform wants the common man’s vote but it’s the offshore account that gets the follow up call.”
Candy said that over the past few years Britain has “had the biggest brain drain ever” because of wealthy residents leaving to the sorts of jurisdictions Reform is targeting in its fundraising drive.
He cited an FT interview with Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris who blamed “years of incompetence” by the Tories for tax changes that have led him to leave the UK for Italy and Abu Dhabi.
The Conservatives said in government that they would abolish the UK’s favourable non-dom tax regime, a policy Labour subsequently implemented.
“Non-doms don’t want to leave, they just have better options nowadays,” Candy said, adding that “when they leave they don’t come back”. Candy said he was tax resident in the UK.
Earlier this year Reform was courting a donation from Elon Musk, the Tesla boss and adviser to US President Donald Trump.
The unsuccessful discussions with Musk, who has since soured on Farage, drew attention to the fact that the UK electoral system allows foreign persons to donate to British parties as long as the money is given by a UK registered company.
There are no limits on the amount of money that can be given this way, or by British nationals in their own name. However there are strict spending rules during the campaigning period in the run-up to elections.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s adviser on ethical standards has called on the government to limit donations from companies to profits they had made in the UK in the last two years.
UK nationals living overseas for more than 15 years were previously not allowed to donate or vote but the Tories removed the ban in 2022 ahead of the 2024 general election.
