Does £72m win you an election?

Jon Sopel (0:02)

This is a Global Production.

Emily Maitlis (0:05)

If you were a crypto billionaire, why might you give to the Reform Party?

Anthony Scaramucci (0:11)

They're probably copying the playbook from America. When the money goes into the politics like that, the middle, lower class, working class people get destroyed. You gotta pass legislation to stop it from happening. If I was a crypto billionaire, I would not be giving money to Nigel Farage.

Emily Maitlis (0:27)

Why not?

Anthony Scaramucci (0:27)

Dangerous guy. He has this form of nationalism that's pernicious.

Emily Maitlis (0:33)

If you're looking at people who've got so much money that they can throw 36 million pounds at a party pretty much overnight, then there is a suggestion that something is nefarious. Is it right that two cryptocurrency billionaires, two individuals, can effectively swing the election?

SPEAKER_4 (0:53)

Isn't it fantastic that a new party can compete with the existing main parties and attract the…

Emily Maitlis (0:59)

You're comfortable then?

SPEAKER_4 (1:00)

I'm comfortable. I think we should celebrate the fact that brilliant entrepreneurs can decide to try and invest and grow a struggling UK economy and back people like Nigel Farage and the leadership team to create the right policies to get this country back on track because we are in serious financial and cultural and societal problems.

And that's why we exist, because we're the disruptor. Competition is a good thing. Keeping everybody on their toes, the others are responding accordingly. That is great for democracy and we're very grateful.

Emily Maitlis (1:32)

It is great for democracy when two cryptocurrency billionaires can donate 72 million pounds to one party.

Jon Sopel (1:41)

Reform has backed every crypto policy demand, even threatening to sack the governor of the Bank of England. Is our politics for sale? Welcome to The News Agents.

It's Jon.

Emily Maitlis (2:02)

It's Maitlis.

Jon Sopel (2:03)

And you wait all day for a 36 million pound donation to come along and then two come along at once. It's like London buses for the Reform Party over this weekend. It was jaw dropping. It was astonishing that first of all comes one 36 million and then another billionaire says, I'll see that match it. And here's another one.

Another one too. And you're wondering, well, that's pretty damn impressive that 72 million pounds has come in over the course of a weekend. But is it cynical? Is it skeptical to follow the money and say, what are they getting in return?

Emily Maitlis (2:40)

Yeah, it's also just delicious that a party that frames itself as the People's Party actually gets almost nothing from individual party subs, from individual party members, and instead has to find itself breaking through by attracting two crypto billionaires to the table. After it has, we know already, promised, pledged a policy that would see crypto being taxed at just 10 percent. So if you're trying to put some of the pieces together, here are the things that don't add up. Reform thinks it is anti-establishment, thinks it is the party of the little person, thinks it is breaking away from all the bad and the elite and the evils of the traditional parties. And yet, what are they doing? They're essentially agreeing to be funded by just two people. I don't know what you'd call that.

Is it a kleptocracy? Is it a broocracy? It's two people who would essentially have so much sway over one party that it doesn't really matter what anyone else would want.

Jon Sopel (3:57)

Look, the funding of politics is murky. Do you remember the fuss, the outrage, the fury that reform showed at the time of the general election when it turned out that Keir Starmer had had a couple of pairs of glasses bought for him and a suit. I mean, how outrageous.

Emily Maitlis (4:17)

Went to Taylor Swift.

SPEAKER_4 (4:18)

Went to Taylor Swift.

Jon Sopel (4:20)

God, your nose is in the trough. Here we are.

This comes on top of Nigel Farage already having accepted a five million pound personal donation from the same guy.

Anthony Scaramucci (4:32)

Yeah.

Jon Sopel (4:35)

I do think you make an important point, Emily. If you look at the Conservative Party, yes, there are very wealthy donors who have given money over the years to the Conservative Party, and there's also an awful lot of money raised from bring-and-buy sales and whatever else that goes on, where the Tories have tried to stay in touch with their grassroots. Similarly, with the Labour Party, yeah, there are a handful of wealthy donors, but there is the relationship with the trade unions, and people can say that is a relationship that is antiquated, but the Labour Party was born out of the trade union movement, and there are fundraising drives.