More than 8 former Conservative donors attended the event
More than half a dozen major former Conservative donors paid thousands of pounds to attend a lavish Reform UK fundraiser on Tuesday evening, which raised over £1 million.
Bassim Haidar and Mohamed Amersi, both former Tory donors, confirmed to the Financial Times that they each paid £25,000 for a VIP ticket to sit with party leader Nigel Farage.
Haidar revealed that at least eight major former Tory donors, including himself, attended the event at the Mayfair private members’ club, Oswald’s, which is owned by major Reform donor, Robin Birley.
Meanwhile, Amersi estimated that there were several other “disgruntled Tory donors” at the gathering of around 100 people.
Haidar, a Lebanese entrepreneur born in Nigeria, has given £675,000 to the Conservatives in the past two years, while Amersi has donated more than £500,000 since 2018.
Haidar, who criticised the Tories’ crackdown on non-doms last year, stated that he views Reform “as a strong alternative to the Tories”.
Amersi, a business tycoon and UK citizen born in Kenya, told the FT that he remains a Tory party member, but said that the Tories were “losing momentum”.
He also said party leader Kemi Badenoch had “no policies, no outreach, no connectivity”, adding that she “doesn’t know what ground she is occupying”.
The Brexit campaign backer Aaron Banks attended the event.
Myles Barclay, a young member of the Barclay banking family, and Andrew Reid, the British horse racing trainer and former treasurer of the UK Independence Party, also attended the dinner.
At the event, Farage is reported to have told the crowd, “There is no ‘wokery’ in this room”.
The ‘YMCA’ song by Village People, which has become a staple at Trump’s campaign rallies, was also played at the event.
The polling aggregator Election Maps UK, has taken an average of current opinion polls and found that support for Reform stands at 24%, behind Labour at 25.9% and ahead of the Tories’ 23.5%.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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