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Whose money a political party takes can tell you a lot about which interests they are likely to serve. In the case of Reform UK’s Birmingham conference that includes crypto firms, right-wing think tanks and the kind of sponsors that other political parties would run a mile from. Here are just some of the corporate interests bankrolling Reform UK’s conference.
Big Tobacco
Nigel Farage has never hidden his love of smoking. A self-described “chain smoker” he once branded smokers the “heroes of the nation” for how much tax is paid on cigarettes. His support of smoking appears to have been rewarded at the conference with sponsorships of fringe events. One panel titled “Revitalising the Great British High Street – how to reverse decades of decline” is being sponsored by the right wing think tank The Adam Smith Institute and ironically given the preponderance of vape shops on Britain’s high streets, Japan Tobacco, one of the three largest tobacco firms in the world which also owns shares in various vape companies. Japan has been branded as a “tobacco state” by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, because of the closeness between big tobacco – particularly Japan Tobacco – and government.
Another firm at the conference is Forest Online, hosting a panel called “The Politics of Prohibition: The Fight for Choice. Forest describes itself as “voice and friend of the smoker” and lobbies against regulation of smoking. According to the Bath University-run site Tobacco Tactics, Forest has received money from several major Tobacco firms including Phillip Morris and Japan Tobacco International. Speakers on the panel include Simon Clarke, the director of Forest and Christopher Snowden of the Institute for Economic Affairs thinktank (which has received Big Tobacco funding for decades according to Tobacco Tactics).
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Right Wing Think Tanks
Reform UK conference has attracted right wing think tanks like moths to a flame. The traditionally Conservative-aligned think tanks with an office on Tufton Street like the Institute for Economic Affairs, the Adam Smith Institute, the Centre for Policy Studies and the Taxpayers Alliance are all sponsoring panels or hosting stands at the conference, as is The Centre for Social Justice – the think tank established by former Conservative leader and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith.
Also sponsoring the conference are two think tanks more associated with the radical or populist right. The Heartland Institute, a climate-change denying think tank with links to the Trump administration, which famously once paid for a billboard comparing people who believe in climate change to the Unabomber, is sponsoring an event titled “Is Climate Realism Inevitable”. The speakers on the panel include the US head of the institute James Taylor and the UK head and former UKIP leader Lois Perry, as well as Lord Monckton, another former UKIP leader and figures from the IEA and Taxpayer’s Alliance. Farage was a guest of honour at the UK launch of Heartland in January of this year.
Additionally, the Prosperity Institute – formerly the Legatum Institute – the think tank funded by the Hedge Fund the Legatum Institute which is part owned by GB News boss Paul Marshall is sponsoring two events, one on reversing the “Boris wave” (a right wing meme referring to the post-Brexit spike in immigration) and another titled “Drill Baby Drill: Abandoning Net Zero and restoring Energy Abundance”. At the first talk, another right wing think tanker Alp Mehmet, from the Centre for Migration control, spoke from the audience advocating an end to international student visas and at the second, one of the panellists included Maurice Cousins of the fossil fuel funded climate-sceptic thinktank Net Zero Watch, and Jonathan Kitson of the soon-to-launch Reform affiliated thinktank Centre for a Better Britain, highlighting just how many right wing think tanks converged upon the conference.
Goldbugs and Crypto bros
Alternatives to fiat currency are in plentiful supply at the conference. Addressing the people of power and influence at the Birmingham NEC are cryptocurrency firms Zebec Technologies and AAVE. Zebec is sponsoring a panel on “Strengthening the Rule of Law: Legislative Reform” which examines “removing citizenship from criminals, protecting the right to a jury trial, the balance common law and legislation” and… “encouraging economic growth through growth and innovation technology like blockchain and cryptocurrency”. AAVE a cryptocurrency lending platform is more open about their promotion of crypto. Their panel with Zia Yusuf is simply titled “Crypto and the Future of Finance.
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Where the crypto bros seem to be targeting their message at those who might one day make policy, there are also stands hawking gold to Reform’s base. These include Tally Gold, a firm which promises customers a digital payment system pegged to gold stored in a Swiss vault and Direct Bullion which is advertising gold bullion to Reform’s members with a poster of a grinning Farage and the caption “Nigel Farage recommends Direct Bullion” and offering Reform’s members the ability to “protect their wealth in uncertain times” and to avoid to keep “safe from the wealth tax”. Farage has personally received hundreds of thousands of pounds from the company, according to his Parliamentary register of interest.
Other noteworthy sponsors at the conference include: Heathrow Airport sponsoring a business lounge (as at other party conferences), the government of Gibraltar, the British territory recently denounced by a Spanish MEP as a tax haven, the Israeli embassy who sponsored an early morning event on the hostages in Gaza, and property developers Thakeham, and Kurtis Property.