Dear John,

FARAGE’S PARTY RECEIVES A SINGLE DONATION OF £9 MILLION

That’s a colossal, record breaking sum - the largest single donation ever from a living person to a political party.

The donor, Christopher Harborne, is a crypto-currency investor, no doubt attracted by Farage’s talk of lowering taxes and loosening regulation around digital currency assets.

This mega-donation tells us something important about Reform’s real purpose.

Farage sells his party as a people’s revolt, a vehicle to put right all those things ordinary people are angry about. But the evidence suggests it is something very different… a vehicle for the interests of the very wealthy.

Ask yourself this question: When a billionaire writes a record-breaking cheque and a politician offers his industry a favour, does that looks more like bought influence to you or a genuine grassroots revolt?

Scratch the surface and it’s easy to see what these people are looking to buy:

• Tax cuts for those at the very top. Changes that benefit the wealthiest, while everyone else pays the price through squeezed public services and higher cost of living.
  

• A degradation of worker rights. With weaker protections, wages can be held down and profits pushed up, lining the pockets of directors and shareholders.
  

• A direct carve-out for their industry. Harborne is a crypto investor, and Farage has been telling the crypto world he’ll cut regulation and taxes for them. Coincidence?

Just look at the direction our country is heading in. We’re told the economy is growing, but the gap keeps widening. And for millions, living standards still feel like they’re going backwards. But why?

Britain’s political system is wide open to big-money influence. The rules are so weak that a tiny number of billionaires can reshape our politics, and it’s always working people who pay the price.

The wealthy buy the powerful. The powerful sets the rules. The rules serve the wealthy. It’s not rocket science.

Yes, Farage is feeling the heat right now over his racist “past”. But many of those ordinary people who back him are too angry and fed up to care. They just want the system to be fairer and they hear Farage say that’s what he will do. Sadly, his actions suggest otherwise.

The truth is, positive change will only come when we have a system that listens to ordinary people and puts their interests at the heart of the decisions made in Parliament.  That’s never going to happen under First Past the Post, a system that incentivises those in power to focus their efforts on keeping small but influential groups happy.

Proportional Representation is the change we need. It would make everyone’s vote count and ensure everyone’s voice was heard in Parliament. It would open the door to new policies delivering better outcomes for ordinary people’s lives. It won’t fix everything overnight but it will make everything fixable over time.

That’s why we’re fighting so hard to make it a reality. And we can only do it with your support.

We don’t have anyone writing us cheques for £9 million. We don’t get huge donations from corporations. (Our work would be a lot easier if we did… but that’s not our thing.)

We are proud to rely on small gifts from supporters like you. And we do the very best we can with them, using the efforts of our small, efficient and highly committed team to squeeze every ounce of value from them. That’s a much better way to go about things, right?

Thank you so much for your support.

All the best,

Mark Kieran
CEO, Open Britain