Subscriptions
Read our Monthly Magazine
And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
Reform UK have been using their campaign leaflets to promote a product produced by a major donor to Nigel Farage’s party.
Reform leaflets sent out for the local elections have promoted the ‘JCB Pothole Pro’, as part of their promise to “FIX the ROADS!”.
The promotion came after JCB’s owners donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the party.
The leaflets feature the promise to address potholes using the machine, which was allegedly ‘dedicated just to us’, in amongst other pledges to take power away from the civil service, reject ‘unnecessary over development’, and to crack down on unspecified illegal high street activity.
The leaflets, seen in the West Yorkshire borough of Kirklees, is just the latest instance of Reform promoting JCB and their products, after Reform-led councils in Lincolnshire and Derbyshire also trialled them last year. Lincolnshire adopted a new extended trial, despite the tool previously being rejected by the authority in 2021 because engineers had “found better tools”.
In Barnet, another leaflet from Reform for May’s elections shows the party pledging to “Fix Potholes: Invest in JCB Pothole Pro – repairs in record time at a fraction of the cost.”
ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE
Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account.
We’re not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe.
Previously Rejected
A similar story played out in February 2026 in Nottinghamshire County Council, also controlled by Reform UK, where Reform said that it would purchase “at least” two of the machines, which typically cost between £150,000 and £200,000, despite the then Conservative-run council previously rejecting them.
The authority had decided not to go ahead with buying the product in 2021 because a report from highways officers found that they struggled on narrow residential roads and that productivity was no better than existing methods.
In Warwickshire, once again a Reform-led authority, the JCB Pothole Pro was promoted by council leader George Finch in a video shared on party socials in early November 2025, after he’d visited the site in Staffordshire. Finch said that he wanted to bring “new, innovative technologies to Warwickshire County Council” in the video, which prompted warnings from opposition councillors that he was “walking a fine line” and needed “to be very clear about what his interests are”.
The JCB Donations
Just prior to this, Reform received a large £200,000 donation from one company under the JCB name – J.C Bamford Excavators Ltd – which was accepted on 3rd November 2025. Speaking at the time, Nigel Farage said during a speech that he wanted to say a “big, public thank you to Lord Bamford and JC Bamford Excavators” because “they know we are pro entrepreneurship, they know we are pro startup, they know we are pro small business”.
JCB is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of construction equipment, with 22 plants on four continents, employing some 19,000 people. Company Chair, billionaire businessman Lord Bamford is a longstanding Conservative megadonor who bankrolled and hosted Boris Johnson’s wedding, and members of the Bamford family and its associated companies have donated over £11 million to the Conservatives over the years. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has also been pictured promoting the Pothole pro.
Don’t miss a story
In addition to the donation to Reform central, Bamford has also funded a £8,400 helicopter trip for Farage and one of his staffers, so that he could tour a JCB site, and the Pothole Pro was exhibited at the 2025 Reform Party conference in Birmingham.
Bamford is among several high-profile Conservative donors to have contributed to Reform’s coffers as the party has overtaken the Conservatives in the polls, among them: Jeremy Hosking, Mohamed Amersi, and cryptocurrency entrepreneur Christopher Harborne.
However, unlike others such as Harborne, who remains Reform’s primary donor and has stated that he no longer has any interest in seeing a Conservative / Reform coalition should the two remain high in the polls closer to the next general election, Bamford seems to be hedging his bets for the time being, having recently donated £200,000 to the Conservativesas well.
In the runup to the May elections, Reform are leading the pack in terms of large donations, having received more than £5.4 million in the final three months of last year, figures from the Electoral Commission show.
‘Insidious Relationships’
Speaking to Byline Times, Tom Brake, CEO of Unlock Democracy, said of the findings that: “It is time to put a stop to the insidious relationships that can exist between political parties and companies. In such a relationship, companies donate to a political party before or after an election campaign, hoping this will further their commercial prospects if that party gains power. The political party, in turn, seeks to increase its chances of receiving a donation by promoting the company’s products.”
“The government should use the Representation of the People Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, to stop these cosy relationships from growing in number and value. A tough cap on donations, followed by a ban on companies receiving contracts from governing parties they have donated to, would be a good start.”
JCB and the Reform Party were approached for comment.
Got a story? Get in touch in confidence on tips@bylinetimes.com
holding farage to account #reformUNCOVERED
While most the rest of the media seems to happy to give the handful of Reform MPs undue prominence, Byline Times is committed to tracking the activities of Nigel Farage’s party when actually in power
Contribute to our #ReformUncovered crowdfunder