Subscriptions
Read our Monthly Magazine
And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
The Electoral Commission is assessing a £30,000 donation to Reform UK in the form of private flights which appears to have been secretly funded by a ‘credit’ from the air firm’s owner.
In June, Byline Times reported on a donation of £30,000 recorded by the Electoral Commission to Reform UK from Volare Aviation Ltd, recorded in February this year.
The firm’s legally-required accounts were months overdue at the time, and are now more than 230 days overdue.
In its initial response to questions about the donation, a spokesperson for Volare Aviation told Byline Times it provided aviation services to Reform Party UK Limited, requested through Reform personnel, to carry Reform figures and “associated attendees” around the country, and invoiced Reform at normal commercial rates.
But the firm added a detail not recorded by the elections watchdog: that Reform’s account with the company included a £30,000 “credit associated with support from Mr Dustin Dryden,” the company’s owner.
A company is only a legitimate donor when it gives from its own resources. It cannot lawfully act as a mere conduit for an individual’s money.
Don’t miss a story
There is no allegation of wrongdoing of Dryden. However, the revelation throws into question whether the true source of the donation was hidden by Nigel Farage’s party.
If the £30,000 in value actually came from Dryden personally, and the company was simply the vehicle it passed through, then the true donor is Dryden and Reform UK recording ‘Volare Aviation Ltd’ as the donor with the Electoral Commission was inaccurate.
Companies House records describe the South African-raised businessman as British and resident in England. If he is on a UK electoral register he would himself be a permissible donor. The question is whether Reform UK hid the true source of its funding for private flights.
Party treasurers are legally responsible for delivering accurate donation reports and for verifying permissibility within 30 days of receipt. If Reform knew or ought to have known the true source differed from what was filed, it is potentially legally exposed.
Byline Times has been investigating a number of companies with late corporate filings, insolvency issues and strike-off action which have nonetheless donated large sums to Reform UK in the past two years.
The £30,000 un-reported ‘credit’ from a private flight company’s owner is just the latest in a long list of unanswered questions over Reform UK’s finances, including the true nature of the £5 million ‘gift’ to Nigel Farage from Thai-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne before the 2024 General Election, unreported funding from convicted fraudster George Cottrell, and the source of funds for his mother’s £750,000 in donations to Reform in recent years.
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.
Enforcement Proceedings
The Electoral Commission told Byline Times on 6 July that it was “aware of this matter and [is] considering it under our regulatory remit.” On being pressed, the political finance regulator confirmed the matter “is not the subject of an investigation by the Commission.”
However, on 13 July, the Electoral Commission told an investigator at Reform-tracker The Verified Receipts “our review remains ongoing”, suggesting something had changed.
On 22 July, The Verified Receipts received further correspondence from the watchdog saying the case had been referred from their Information of Concern team to the Enforcement Team and allocated to a Senior Investigator on 14 July.
The donation is now undergoing a formal “assessment”, the stage where they weigh the evidence to decide whether to launch a full investigation formally under electoral law (potentially resulting in a fine or further action), or resolve it another way, such as through guidance.
In a letter, the senior investigator said: “I am writing in relation to a non-cash donation of £30,000 recorded as being received by Reform UK from Volare Aviation Ltd on 13 February 2026. Thank you for raising this matter with us. The purpose of this letter is to notify you that we are carrying out an assessment of these matters as part of our enforcement process….The matter was referred to the Enforcement Team.”
Reform UK’s £30,000 Donation in Private Flights was Secretly Funded by Owner’s ‘Credit’
A Byline Times investigation raises questions about whether the true source of the money went undeclared by Nigel Farage’s party
The Electoral Commission official added: “The first stage of the enforcement process is to conduct an assessment. Assessments are a consideration of the issues and evidence to determine whether to investigate, or whether an issue can be dealt with another way, such as through the provision of guidance.
“We may investigate where we have reasonable grounds to suspect that a person has
committed an offence or contravened a restriction or requirement under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (PPERA)1, and where we are satisfied it is in the public interest to take such action.”
Dr Sue Hawley, executive director of Spotlight on Corruption, told Byline Times before the latest development: “These new revelations, piling on top of other recent stories, expose the ongoing loopholes in our political finance rules which still need to be tackled.
“We urgently need more robust requirements on donors (whether individuals or companies) to declare whether they are actually the true donor, so as to make the criminal deterrent against individuals acting as intermediaries far stronger.”
Dr Hawley called for “strong enforcement” – including through a properly resourced Electoral Commission, working with a specialised police force, to police the rules.
“Without proper enforcement, money that comes from impermissible sources will continue to seep into our politics,” she said.
Tom Brake, director of campaign group Unlock Democracy, also previously called for “complete clarity over who paid for these Reform UK flights, and certainty that the donation has been recorded accurately.”
Brake, a former Lib Dem MP, argues the public are “increasingly wary” about the impact and source of large political donations.
“The long term solution is to reduce the maximum personal or company donation to £5,000 and close down all loopholes that allow foreign money into UK politics,” he said.
In a joint response for Volare Aviation and Dryden on 13 July, the company stated that nothing in its earlier correspondence was “intended to express a legal characterisation of those arrangements for the purposes of electoral legislation or Electoral Commission reporting” and that it had described the arrangements solely as reflected in its own records.
It declined to comment on the Electoral Commission filing for the £30,000 in flights, the legal characterisation of the donation, third-party reporting obligations, or the application of electoral law, saying these were matters for Reform UK and the Electoral Commission.
The firm also failed to deny that Dryden personally funded the £30,000, and did not answer questions on that point. The spokesperson said they would not engage in further correspondence.
Reform UK did not respond to previous requests for comment.
Got a story? Get in touch in confidence on josiah@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
Subscribers Get More from JOSIAH
Subscribers Get More from JOSIAHJosiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.
So for more from him…
