So much for “anti-establishment.” Reform’s high-profile recruitment drive, hoovering up failed Conservative politicians whom the public roundly rejected, reeks of old-era Conservatism.
Labour announced a new Road Safety strategy this week, a package of measures designed to cut road accidents, including reducing the drink-drive limit. Predictably, for Nigel Farage, the pint-swilling leader of Reform UK, tightening drink-driving laws would be “absolutely ridiculous.” Responding to the proposals, Farage complained that the policy was being “designed by the Islington North London bicycle classes.” He framed the issue not as one of public safety, but as another assault by metropolitan elites on British pub culture, particularly in rural areas.
Equally predictably, the Daily Mail followed suit. Never mind that reducing the drink-driving limit would save an estimated 25 – 40 lives a year, for the Mail, the headline was a warning that Labour’s proposed “near-zero tolerance” drink-driving limit would be a “death knell for country pubs.”
It’s an argument clearly designed to resonate beyond London. Reform has surged in rural constituencies, with polling showing that former Conservative voters in the countryside, the so-called ‘rural right,’ are increasingly shifting to Farage’s party. And it’s probably safe to assume that most Daily Mail readers, who are likely to be sceptical of the “liberal London bubble,” do not live in the capital either.
Yet there is a deeper irony here. Farage insists he stands “with the people” and in opposition to the establishment and the elites. Yet, increasingly, the establishment appears to be standing with Reform.
The ‘Conform’ party
The biggest political story of the week was Kemi Badenoch’s dramatic sacking of shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, after accusing him of secretly plotting to defect to Reform UK. In a you-really-couldn’t-make-this-up twist, the Times reported that the Tories got hold of a “near final” version of Jenrick’s resignation speech after he allegedly left it lying around – on the photocopier no less, at least according to the rumours.
Within hours of the sacking, Jenrick announced he was joining Reform. Beaming beside him at a press conference, nominally about the upcoming Scottish elections, Nigel Farage declared that Jenrick would be “joining our front-line team.”
The anti-immigration zealot, who as immigration minister ordered murals of cartoon characters welcoming child asylum seekers at a Dover reception centre to be painted over, is the latest former Tory bigshot to be embraced by Reform’s ranks.
Earlier this month, former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi became the highest-profile defector. The multi-millionaire, who served under Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, announced that Britain “really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister.”
Others who have crossed the floor include Danny Kruger, who defected in September 2025 to become the first sitting Tory MP to do so, former Conservative chairman Sir Jake Berry, Lee Anderson, who jumped ship in March 2024 and is now Reform’s chief whip, and Nadine Dorries, a staunch ally of Boris Johnson, who announced her defection last year, among others.
So much for “anti-establishment.” Reform’s high-profile recruitment drive, hoovering up failed Conservative politicians whom the public roundly rejected, reeks of old-era Conservatism. This isn’t a rebellion against the establishment, it’s a simple re-branding of it.
As Manchester mayor Andy Burnham put it this week on X: “Reform = worst of the Tory Party.”
To which David Lawrence, co-founder of the Centre for British Progress, replied:
“Highlights the reality. Farage is nothing but an establishment Tory and all he can do is collect failed Tories for the fantasy.”
Donors from high places
Then there’s the filthy rich donors to consider.
Last month it emerged that Claudia Harmsworth, the wife of Lord Rothermere, made a £50,000 donation to Reform UK. According to the Electoral Commission, the donation was made on September 30. Lord Rothermere is, of course, the owner of the Daily Mail, the i and Metro, some of the most influential newspapers in the country, and in November, his company, DMTG, announced it would acquire the Telegraph, consolidating a powerful right-wing newspaper empire.
Harmsworth’s donation immediately sparked speculation about the future loyalties of the conservative press. James Heale of the Spectator wondered on X whether it might signal where sections of the traditionally Conservative-supporting media are heading.
But the mainstream conservative media’s apparent embrace of Farage and Reform is only part of a larger shift. There is growing evidence that sections of Britain’s corporate and financial establishment are also drifting towards Reform.
Heathrow Airport
Being an explicitly anti-net zero party and promising to scrap the UK’s legally binding climate targets, it is perhaps not surprising that Heathrow Airport has donated thousands of pounds to Reform. Electoral Commission records show that on September 2, 2025, Reform accepted £36,000 from Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd.
The airport also sponsored a conference lounge at Reform’s 2025 party conference. Heathrow insisted this did not amount to political endorsement, pointing out that it has hosted similar lounges at conferences across the political spectrum. But the subsequent donation suggests something more deliberate than neutrality.
Nor is Heathrow alone.
Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious auction houses. Founded in London in 1744, it has long operated at the intersection of aristocratic wealth, global finance and elite cultural power. Acquired in 2019 by billionaire Patrick Drahi for $3.7bn, it now offers bespoke art-backed loans to the ultra-wealthy. Between July and September 2025, it donated £100,000 to Reform.
This is hardly the profile of a grassroots insurgency. It sits awkwardly with Reform’s branding as the party of “alarm-clock Britain” and its claim to represent ordinary working people.
Christopher Haborne
The contradiction is even more striking in the case of Christopher Harborne, Reform’s largest donor to date. In August, the party received a record £9 million contribution from the crypto investor and aviation entrepreneur, who lives in Thailand.
A Cambridge graduate and former McKinsey consultant, Harborne holds major stakes in crypto giants Tether and Bitfinex. He also runs AML Global, a jet fuel broker, which has contracts with the US Department of Defense (now of course referred to as the Department of War by Trump and his acolytes).
Such donations exemplify how Reform’s populist image masks a dependence on vast, opaque wealth, a far cry from the party’s “mate down the pub” persona. That impression is reinforced by Farage’s own involvement in the cryptocurrency industry. In October, he was paid £50,000 to speak at two crypto conferences.
High-profile and not-so-high-profile celebrities
Reform’s cultural reach is also widening. Celebrity endorsements of a political party can be both influential and revealing. They can shape public perception and, more importantly, expose political disaffection. Reform’s growing haul of celebrity endorsements points not merely to increased support for the right-wing party, but to a widening disillusionment with its rivals.
Among the most notable is Sir Rod Stewart, who’s never shied away from political comment. In 2023, the long-time Tory supporter urged the Conservative government to “stand down,” arguing that Labour deserved a chance to govern. Yet by 2025, he was publicly calling on Britain to “give Nigel Farage a chance,” citing Labour’s handling of fishing rights in Scotland. “What options have we got?” he asked, saying Farage is “coming across well.”
It could be argued that what emerges from these endorsements is less about enthusiasm for Reform, but a lack of belief in Labour. Take adult content creator Bonnie Blue, admittedly not among the A-list celebrities, who admits she is “not knowledgeable about politics,” yet says she supports Farage because the country feels “very messed up” and she finds his positions on immigration and tax “sensible.”
Which brings us back to the pub.
The row over drink-driving laws is not really about whether rural pubs survive, many already depend on food, taxis and designated drivers. It’s about who gets to define “ordinary Britain,” and who gets painted as an out-of-touch elite. Farage casts himself as the bloke at the bar, defending common sense against killjoy technocrats. Yet the forces lining up behind him are not bar staff or pub regulars, but billionaires, failed Tory has-beens, global corporations, crypto tycoons, elite auction houses and the most powerful media proprietors in the country. Reform doesn’t represent a rebellion against the establishment. It represents a rebranding of it, served up with a pint and a packet of populism.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is author of Right-Wing Watch
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