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1 week ago
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Two major Conservative donors, Bassim Haidar and Mohamed Amersi, paid £25,000 each to attend a Reform fundraising dinner on Tuesday night, and sources say the party brought in pledges of more than £1m beforehand from businesspeople.
Reform sources said ticket prices ranged from £10,000 for the dinner to £25,000 for a seat at the top table with Nigel Farage at Oswald’s in Mayfair, central London.
Haidar, an IT billionaire and Lebanese-Irish national, gave the Conservatives more than £700,000 in the run-up to the last election and is one of a string of Tory backers who have flirted with Reform as it grows in the polls. He has previously spoken about his unhappiness with changes to government policy on non-doms.
Haidar told the Guardian: “The event was a valuable opportunity to learn more about the party’s mission, and I believe they have a good one to ‘make the UK great again’. It’s worth considering them as a strong alternative.”
Amersi, who gave almost £500,000 to the Tories between 2019 and 2021, lost a high-profile legal battle with the former Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie in 2023, and the Tory MP David Davis subsequently made a string of serious allegations against him under parliamentary privilege. Amersi has also spoken of potentially donating to Labour politicians.
Amersi told the Guardian: “The energy in the room was just really electric. It does feel like momentum is behind Reform and the question is what happens to the strands of conservatism, Reform and the Conservative party. People like me, who straddle both, will certainly be pushing for a unified stance …
“Mr Farage was impressive as ever and I was particularly impressed by the young chairman, Zia Yusuf, who was dynamic and articulate. Nick Candy, of course, is also an amazing figure to have there. He is a doer.”
Topics discussed included Reform’s chances in the local elections and in Wales and Scotland. Donors who attended say they were told that 190,000 people had signed up to be Reform UK members.
The fundraising event was organised by Farage and Candy, the party’s new treasurer, who is also a former Conservative donor. Candy’s wife, the former actor and pop star Holly Valance, was at the event.
Other guests included the Duke of Marlborough, Charles James Spencer-Churchill, the socialite Lady Victoria Hervey, the boxer Derek Chisora and Ant Middleton, the former host of SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Arron Banks, a longstanding ally of Farage, was also at the gathering and told reporters that Farage was “definitely” the right man to be leading Reform, despite Elon Musk’s claim that he should be replaced.
Yusuf, who founded the concierge firm Velocity Black, was present alongside the Reform MPs Richard Tice, Lee Anderson and James McMurdock and the businessman George Cottrell, who often accompanies Farage despite having no official role in the party. Cottrell’s mother, Fiona Cottrell, has donated £500,000. A former head of fundraising for Ukip, Cottrell spent eight months in an American jail in 2016-17 after pleading guilty to wire fraud.
The Mayfair club where the event was held is owned by Robin Birley, a former Ukip and Tory donor whose half-brother is the Conservative peer and former cabinet minister Zac Goldsmith.
Reform UK donors said they felt that there was “buzz” around the party among the business community.
Charlie Mullins, who gave £20,000 to Reform last year and was unable to make the event, said: “People are coming to Reform because they see it as a party that is business-orientated at a time when the government is very anti-business.”
Mullins said he was prepared to give more to the party and that he was impressed by what he had seen so far. He has given more than £89,000 to the Tories, Labour and Liberal Democrats through the firm he founded, Pimlico Plumbers.
“We’re looking towards the local elections now but after that there is clearly a long-term plan looking at the next general election with Reform,” he said. “I can tell that quite a few people I’ve met at Conservative functions in the past are coming on board.”
