Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is expected to see “more money coming” to Reform after Christopher Harborne’s record donation to the party.
Speaking to the People’s Channel, GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope predicted a further financial boost for the party, as Mr Farage vowed to go “double or quits” on this year’s local elections.
The Reform UK leader has splurged £5million on his latest election strategy, which Christopher described as a plan to establish a “personal connection” with voters.
Christopher explained: “£5million, it’s huge. He’s checking it all on black in an electoral casino with the May elections coming up.
“£5million of the £9million given to him by Christopher Harborne back in August, I think this shows to me that there’s more money coming in to Reform UK.”
He added: “The fact he’s willing to spend so much of the money he’s publicly attracted from donors, says to me there’s more money coming down the tracks.
“We don’t know yet how big in fundraising he has been in the fourth quarter of the last calendar year, but suggests to me more money is coming in.”
Revealing that the election strategy Mr Farage is spending the money on is a “different” one, Christopher said: “He’s spending money through direct leafleting, that’s going on the M25 area around London, where Boris Johnson did so well when he when he got rid of Ken Livingstone and beat off other Labour candidates.
“Also he’s spending money in May in Scotland and Wales ahead of the elections there, they’re trying to target the money where they think they can get the best return, and the one way they’re doing it, they wouldn’t do it in the old days is they are doing direct social media messaging, as it were, from Nigel Farage to voters.”
Christopher Hope has predicted ‘more money’ is coming to Reform UK as Nigel Farage splurges millions on his local election strategy
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GB NEWS / PA
Christopher explained: “So it’s like WhatsApp’s, saying ‘Dear whoever you are, vote for me today, I need your help, Nigel’. And that connection through social media, through WhatsApp, SMS messaging between the leader and the voter, that’s really important. That’s all that counts.
“If you vote Reform UK, you’re backing Farage personally almost more than the actual party, and they’re using social media to maximise that, which I think is quite interesting.”
Weighing in on Reform’s election spending, ex-Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski said there is a “very high expectation” for them to do well at the ballot box in May.
He told GB News: “Of course, there’s a very high expectation for them, but I’m seeing for the first time in my lifetime that we’ve entered into this sort of five-party type system here, and it will be very interesting to see what happens here in London as a result of the Greens taking so much support from Labour.
Nigel Farage has vowed to go ‘double or quits’ by spending £5million on local elections
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PA“I’m actually standing to be a councillor in the May elections in Maida Vale for the Conservatives, but that constellation of five political parties and the splits between them, it could throw up some very interesting results in the elections in May.”
Asked by host Ben Leo how the £5million spent by Mr Farage compares to previous parties, Christopher revealed: “It is an extraordinary amount from a living individual, there has never been a bigger donation from one person living. Money in bequests and the like, but never that much money from someone alive.
“And that’s why it’s so dramatic and so big. And I think he’s got lots of money and he’s going to spend it.
“What parties have to do is spend donor’s money on winning elections and by-elections and the like, that’s what he’s doing.”
Stressing that support for Reform is “holding firm”, Christopher said: “In December last year there were 171 council by-elections, Reform won 60.
“Now, if you push that on to a vote share, that will give Reform a 28 per cent vote share, Lib Dems 19 per cent. Tories 16 per cent, Labour at 15 and Greens at 11 per cent.
Christopher told GB News that Mr Farage is seeking to establish a ‘personal connection’ with voters
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GB NEWS
“The Lib Dems do well with local voting and do less well nationally, but it shows how Reform is holding firm.”
Suggesting Mr Farage increasingly has “his eye on the prize” in becoming Prime Minister at the next election, Christopher concluded: “There’s a feeling that we had reached peak Farage towards the end of last year, and various Tories wandered up to me and said, ‘is he ill? Is he tired?’ Well, no.
“You want him to be tired, you want him to be ill, I see no evidence of that at all with Nigel Farage. He is carrying on and is increasingly getting his eye on the prize. He’s increasingly saying he can be Prime Minister, which never would do.
“I interviewed him out ahead of the May local elections last year, he wouldn’t say four times that he can imagine himself going through the front door of Downing Street, now I think he can.”