Who is sponsoring this year’s Reform UK conference?

Reform UK will hold its annual party conference in Birmingham next week, from 3-5 September, with a range of sponsors, from Tufton Street think tanks, to fossil fuel interests and Heathrow Airport. However, amid the scandal over Nigel Farage’s undeclared £5 million gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, the crypto companies that funded and attended Reform conference last year are nowhere to be seen in the lineup for this year’s gathering.

Meanwhile, Reform is hosting a stand-alone ‘business day’ and ‘business dinner’ at Reform conference this year (which Labour also does), allowing corporates to pay a premium (£495 for the day and £395 for dinner) to get access to Reform politicians.

Here are some of the companies sponsoring fringe events or hosting stands at this year’s event.

Heathrow Airport

The UK’s largest airport is once again sponsoring a lounge at Reform conference this year. As well as being a key sponsor of Reform conference this year and last year, on 2 September 2025, Reform accepted a £36,000 donation from Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd, which owns the airport. Reform consistently campaigns against net zero targets, with Richard Tice having recently made comments downplaying the climate crisis. Tice said people should “enjoy” the heatwaves and that “climate change has always happened, it always will”.

Heathrow is lobbying to open a third runway, which Keir Starmer’s government said Labour would support. According to the Airport Commission, another runway would add extra 4.4 million tonnes of CO2 a year, equivalent to the yearly energy use of over 5 million homes. 

Fossil fuel interests

Cadent Gas and Liquid Gas UK, which represents LPG and bioLPG suppliers, will be sponsoring fringe events at Reform conference. Cadent Gas, which distributes gas to 11 million homes and businesses, will be sponsoring a fringe event with right-wing ‘free market’ think tank the Adam Smith Institute, on how to cut the price of power. The alleged purpose of the panel is to look at whether “the UK’s green energy ambitions are compatible with reliable, affordable electricity, and what a genuinely market-driven approach to clean energy would look like”.

Fuels Industry UK, a trade body that represents oil companies, is another sponsor at this year’s conference. Key members of Fuels Industry UK include Shell, BP and Esso Petroleum (which is owned by ExxonMobil). They will host a breakfast reception with the Adam Smith Institute, with Richard Tice MP as a speaker, where they will discuss “safeguarding the UK’s fuel resilience and protecting our domestic manufacturing base”.

Tufton Street think tanks

Right-wing Tufton Street-based think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies, will be hosting multiple panels at Reform conference next week. These include panels on the impact of migration on housing shortages, an event with a description that claims “the welfare system is no longer a safety net, more a way of life” and a panel on the “case for capitalism” over “absurd socialist policies”. 

The Taxpayers’ Alliance, a Tufton Street-based lobby group which advocates for taxes to be lowered, is also paying to host a fringe event. The group was founded by Matthew Elliott, who was chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign. 

The Tufton Street think tanks have long been associated with the Conservative Party, but are also seeking to create closer ties with Reform, and have received millions in donations from anonymous US donors with links to Donald Trump. 

Anti-WHO campaign

Action on World Health, the think tank that is “committed to replacing the World Health Organisation” and which Nigel Farage is chair and a co-founder of, will also be a fringe sponsor.

No crypto?

As CityAM has noted in an article it published today, crypto currency companies are notably absent from this year’s conference schedule.

This is in stark contrast to last year, when cryptocurrency firms Zebec Technologies and AAVE sponsored panel events and Reform offered perks to crypto executives, including free tickets and access to senior Reform figures.

This comes as the Parliamentary Standard Commissioner has resumed his investigation into Farage’s failure to declare his gift from Harborne, following the Reform leader’s re-election as an MP.

A source told City AM “There has been a concerted effort to dial down digital assets and crypto” at next week’s Birmingham conference. 

Less than a year ago, Farage declared that Reform would “bring crypto in from the cold”. Now, as his close ties to the industry have come under scrutiny, it appears he may be going cold on crypto instead.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward