Nick Candy donated £270,000 to the Tories before he joined Reform as treasurer
Reform UK treasurer Nick Candy’s firm was placed on the Tories’ VIP lane for Covid contracts.
Democracy for Sale has reported that the former Tory donor’s business Candy Capital Limited was given high-priority status for government contracts during the pandemic.
However, his firm was not awarded any Covid contracts.
According to Electoral Commission figures, the billionaire property developer donated £270,000 to the Conservative Party between 2020 and December 2024, when he joined Reform.
This includes a donation of £100,000 in 2020 alone, the year his company was added to the high-priority list.
The revelation comes after Democracy for Sale won a four-year legal battle that forces the full list of companies referred to the VIP lane to be disclosed.
Other Conservative-linked names on the list include clothing retailer Next, whose CEO is Tory donor Simon Wolfson, Lady Xuelin Bates, who has donated over £200,000 to the Conservatives and a dental clinic chain whose owner has donated upwards of £250,000 to the Conservative Party.
None of these companies secured PPE contracts either.
However, firms on the list were found to be ten times more likely to be awarded Covid contracts, while over half of the PPE supplied was not usable.
Candy joined Reform UK in December 2024. When he joined as Reform’s treasurer, he said he would donate a seven-figure sum to the party.
That same month, he and Reform leader Nigel Farage visited Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, amid speculation the tech billionaire was considering a £77 million ($100 million) donation to Reform — a pledge that has yet to come to fruition.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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