Frustration as Reform treasurer fails to collect donations promised by big donors – including himself

Apparently the high-ups in Reform are getting annoyed with the party’s treasurer, Nick Candy.

Despite the party presenting itself as the party for normal folk who become members and donate normal amounts of money, Candy has actually been spending time and money jetting around the world to beg various billionaires for money.

For a party that claims to be so full of patriotism and love for Britain, these of course include the most unpatriotic of the uber-wealthy – a set of non-doms who stash their money in tax havens rather than pay the British state what it’s owed.

Whilst he claims to be getting a lot of promises – so many that the party is concerned that the massive funding they perceived to have is putting off other ne’er-do-well billionaires – very few are actually following through and sending the supposedly-promised donation.

Candy travelled to the US late last year with Farage to meet Musk, and returned to announce that the technology billionaire was considering making a significant donation. That sum has so far failed to appear.

He also said he was working with about 20 individuals who would give £1mn each to Reform before the next general election, which must happen by 2029
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An investor best known for the Knightsbridge development One Hyde Park, Candy has been travelling around the world trying to persuade very wealthy individuals — including non-doms in some of the main global tax havens — to part with at least £1mn to support Farage’s party.

The uber-rich who he is failing to collect from include…himself. He pledged to make a 7-figure donation some time ago. So far he’s actually stumped up a mere £313,000. If you can’t even persuade yourself to hand over the money you promised to then his boast to "raise more money than any other political party" doesn’t sound like it stands much of a chance of coming true, thankfully.

Says one senior Reform figure:

There is significant disquiet around the party generally that he has not only failed to deliver on the amount he pledged to give the party personally, but also he’s talked about these tens of millions of pounds of pledges from other donors and they don’t materialise. He has been all talk and no trousers.

It didn’t help that Candy sometimes worked with the former party chairman Zia Yusuf. One associate of Nigel Farage said that Yusuf "was a bit of a kn**".

Whatever that censorship conceals it doesn’t sound complimentary. In fact he was so obnoxious that his very presence apparently put donors off.

He just could not get on with people or work with people. But the much bigger problem was that donors did not want to hand over their money to the party after they spoke to him

said the afore-mentioned associate of Farage.

Another inside claimed that:

…many donors were still sitting on their hands and not won over by the Yusuf/Candy charm offensive. Although in Mr Yusuf’s case it was “more of a lack of charm and pretty offensive”, an insider claimed.