Reform UK activists squabble over Farage’s plan for £72m donations

For Nigel Farage, the £72m lavished last week on his party by the crypto billionaire donors Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne finally places Reform UK on a level playing field with its political rivals.The donations are the largest received by a UK political party since declarations became required in 2001 and led to warnings Farage was aiming to “buy” his way to power, with a row still raging over whether they are legal.Yet among Reform’s grassroots, the fattening of party coffers comes with challenges of its own, with some activists less than impressed by Farage’s announcement that the money would be used to hire 400 campaign managers in target constituencies.“We need more activists to knock on doors NOT managers,” one posted on a Facebook group used by Reform activists, where the sentiment was not unusual.Another party member, and former candidate, told others he was “puzzled” by Farage’s announcement, adding that the campaign managers would need an army of volunteer doorknockers.“Those campaign managers will rapidly learn that they can’t get nearly enough volunteers to do that. Are Reform planning actually to pay them too, not just the managers?” he asked. “And what happens to the ordinary branch members currently serving as campaign managers having been elected by their membership to that role?”Reform opened a campaign headquarters in Denton, Greater Manchester, in February to contest the Denton-byelection" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="19079" data-entity-type="event">Gorton and Denton byelection. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The GuardianSubstantial spending by Reform on professional organisers is already under way. The party is advertising this week for more than 60 roles, including four branch network coordinators – described as “the backbone of the party” – in various English regions.Forty-seven full-time campaign managers were also being hired in cities, towns and regions across Britain. Other positions include a call centre manager, two “local byelection managers” and a “councillor welfare manager” to work with the party’s 2,300 councillors and whose tasks would include “managing conflict”.Under the heading of “creative”, there are opportunities for a graphic designer, a video editor to bolster the party’s focus on TikTok and other social platforms, and “junior/senior writers”.“Hungry” applicants were asked to write a 500-word letter in the persona of Reform’s combative home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, “setting out how the political class broke Britain and how Reform UK will fix it”.The spending is aimed at putting Reform on a war footing for the next three years by overhauling its branch network.Other funds will go towards beefing up the policy apparatus behind Reform’s shadow cabinet, the Spectator’s deputy political editor, James Heale, reported, while tipping the party’s increasingly powerful treasurer, Harvey Griffiths, as an emerging figure behind the scenes as Farage aims to stop “fiefdoms” popping up at Reform’s Millbank HQ.Of course, much, much more is possible with £72m – and what could be about to come Reform’s way as it powers past Labour and the Tories in terms of donations.Byelections will happen, as will another round of local elections next year. Expect the Farage approach of having a highly centralised party – albeit with improved regional operations – to continue, with activists sent to have follow-up conversations at addresses targeted by direct mailshots.A Reform source emphasised that the first half of that had been “front loaded” with a view to going on with the mundane necessities of running a major party. “It’s the running of head office, the paperclips, the rent. All that stuff.”The same source dismissed squabbling over the money. “There will always be people who think that their pet projects should be the first to be funded, while every single person thinks their bright idea is the one that needs to be watered,” they said. “But it doesn’t work like that. We will still be fundraising from our members.”In a party such as Reform, which comes from a lineage of Farage-led movements whose members have enjoyed seeing themselves as insurgents, there is still room for new tensions to surface if the pace of “professionalisation” happens too fast or is seen to take away the soul of the party.Such claims were a factor in previous splits when Reform figures such as Ben Habib parted company, while Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain is still making siren calls to tempt disillusioned Reform activists.