The British populist party, reform UK, should have brought over $ 1.25 million dollars to a sumptuous fundraising on Tuesday, said a party official, an extraordinary amount for a party that six months ago was at the margin of national politics .
The great American -style event was the first large fundraising since Nigel Farage has taken on the position of party leaders and his ideological ally, Donald J. Trump, returned to the White House.
Mr. Farage wants to redo the British conservatism, just as Trump did in the United States. He pushed the movement to the right with an anti-immigrated and anti-regulation nationalistic platform.
For a party that has collected less than $ 200,000 all over 2023, the turnaround since Mr. Farage became his leader last year was remarkable. Riding a populist wave that was felt by Germany in France in Washington, Mr. Farage catapulted his party from a political letter to a well -financed force.
Mr. Farage arrived in Oswald’s, an exclusive club only for members of the Mayfair neighborhood in London on Tuesday and hastened out of the rain, beyond a fray of journalists. Oswald’s is owned by Robin Birley, an important reform donor.
The Duke of Marlborough, Charles James Spencer-Churchill, followed a little behind. Arron Banks, who participated in the Brexit campaign, also participated, as well as Lady Victoria Hervey and Holly avalanche, a former pop star and actor who is married to the reform treasurer.
A high party official said that the reform sold 90 tickets between £ 10,000 and £ 25,000 each. This would increase well over £ 1 million ($ 1.25 million) for the party. The party official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss preliminary accounting.
The Treasurer of Reform, the billionaire Real Estate Nick Candy, undertook to “guarantee more money for the party of any other in British political history” and Mr. Farage openly played with the acceptance of donations from the donors of Mr. Trump. The billionaire tycoon Elon Musk discussed that he donated money, said Farage.
Unlike the United States, there are no limits to political donations in Great Britain. (Political expenditure, however, is limited.) While the voices of a donating donation of Mr. Musk spread, some British politicians have raised the idea of limiting the donations of foreign campaigns.
Reform has won a record of five seats in Parliament (Farage’s first victory after seven failed attempts) and 14 percent of the votes in the national elections last year. Today, the party is voting in front of the conservatives and filling the gap with the government laburist party.
Despite the gains of the surveys and the sudden influx of liquidity, the reform has a steep fundraising hill to be climbed. The work has collected about £ 30 million and to Tries about £ 48 million in 2023, the last whole year for which data are available.
Mr. Farage has built his political career on opposition to the European Union and immigration, helping to lead the Brexit vote in 2016. While the polls show that the majority of the British now believes that leaving the European Union was An error, that the feeling did not damage Mr. Mr. The state of farage.
His fortunes seem to be galvanized by the victory of Mr. Trump. The reform claims to be the most quick growth of Great Britain, recently exceeding conservatives with almost 187,000 supporters who pay voluntary shares.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Farage were long -standing allies. Mr. Trump announced the elections of Mr. Farage last summer and Mr. Farage was at his side of Mar-A-Lago on the night of the elections while Mr. Trump was voted for the White House again.
Many of the new key commitments of reform in its 2024 manifesto, or political platform, echo to the actions of Mr. Trump during his first days in office.
The reform has committed to abandoning the targets of the key climate and oscillating the energy sector towards oil and gas. The party wants to cut taxes, cut “expensive” government expenses and increase military expenses. And he wants to eliminate the initiatives of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Farage gathers against “woke” and “transgender indoctrination” ideology.
One of the most ambitious promises of the reform is to eliminate the waiting lists of the National Health Service in two years by investing in private health care and injecting 17 billion pounds ($ 21.1 billion) in the public health service – almost three times more.
But the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent research group, said that the total tax and expenditure plans of “do not add up” and will cost billions more than what is required.
Last week, Mr. Farage announced the return to power of Mr. Trump as “the greatest return to modern politics” and “joyful to see”. The Republicans, wrote in a column for the telegraph, “discovered a completely new definition of conservatism”.
“Populism was the winner in the recent elections in America,” he wrote. “Who can say that it could not be the same in the United Kingdom?”