Reform UK mega-donors stir controversy
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday, September 18th, and this is your FT News briefing. Venezuela is close to a golden deal, and we look at Reform UK's controversial donations. Plus, a soft bank data center company is under pressure because OpenAI has delayed its IPO. I'm Sonia Hudson, Informark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day.
The Venezuelan government and the opposition are close to an agreement about the country's gold reserves. It would end a seven-year-long dispute over who controls the resource.
What is the proposed deal for Venezuela’s $4 bn gold reserves and why does it matter?
And it would be one of the first concrete results from a US-backed negotiation process. The deal would transfer four billion dollars of gold stored in the Bank of England to the Federal Reserve in New York. The agreement would allow the government to gain legal control over the reserves, but it couldn't immediately sell the holdings. That's according to three people familiar with the discussions. Instead, the gold could potentially be used as collateral for government borrowing. That could fund spending for things like recovery from the devastating double earthquake in June. The UK Foreign Office declined to comment. The Venezuelan government and the opposition also declined to comment.
Reform UK is under scrutiny for its donations. The right-wing party recently received record-breaking contributions from two crypto billionaires. Ben Dello and Christopher Harborn contributed a combined 72 million pounds to the movement, which was founded by Nigel Farage. The FT has now learned that Dello previously financially supported a controversial libel claim regarding alleged anti-Semitism. Here to talk about it is my colleague David Shepherd. Hi, David.
Hi there.
So David, it's been a busy week for reform. Just qu very quickly get us up to speed on what's happened.
Well, on Friday night there was what big shock in UK politics cause Ben Delo, uh sort of cryptocurrency billionaire suddenly announced that he was donating 36 million pounds to the Reform UK Party. Just as people in UK politics were starting to get over the shock of that, suddenly Christopher Harborne, who was prior to Bendelo, the biggest donor to Reform UK, came out and said on Saturday lunchtime I matching it with Both those donations individually are more than three times larger than any we've seen before in the UK. Perhaps our American listeners might be rolling their eyes at that, going, thirty six million? You're a cheap country? What is this? So suddenly you had this huge influx of money into the upstart party and it's really shaken up Westminster this week.
So Harburn was Reform's previous biggest donor. Tell me about Dello and what you found from looking into him.
Well, he's also backed the free speech union in the UK. and he has provided office space and sort of other facilities in Westminster itself, basically creating a a hub for groups that share similar crossover and right wing views. We learned that Bendello provided three hundred thousand pounds or more in financing to a plaintiff in a defamation case against the Jewish artist Luke Turner. It's a complicated legal case, I think it's fair to say. Luke Turner claimed that he'd been targeted with anti Semitism online, uh but the plaintiffs objected to the fact that he had described him as anti Semitic and otherwise and decided to sue. Look. Turner counter sued saying that he'd been a victim of harassment by these two individuals.
Ultimately, the judge ruled that The defamation case did not stand up. She also ruled that Luke Turner's counter suit. didn't quite meet the high legal standard for harassment. So that was dismissed as well.
Now we should say that Turner and Dello did not provide comment for publication for this article, as well as the plaintiff that Dello supported named Nina Power. But David, can you tell us why is all this important on a broader scale?
This is interesting because Indello's in the spotlight right now, 'cause it it also shines a light on Some of his activities around funding Groups and individuals. Who have
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:49
2
What is the proposed deal for Venezuela’s $4 bn gold reserves and why does it matter?
0:49–8:39
3
How are crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne reshaping Reform UK’s funding?
8:39–12:57
4
Why did Ben Delo’s past support for a libel claim raise concerns for Reform UK?
12:57–13:33