Self-proclaimed ‘man of the people’ Nigel Farage says he will stop unions funding Labour

Self-proclaimed ‘man of the people’ Nigel Farage has said that he will seek to stop trade unions giving money to the Labour Party.

Scandal hit Farage has said that he is willing to take drastic measures if the goverment forces Reform to hand back £72 million it has received from two crypto billionaires.

Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo donated £36m each to the party in the space of just 24 hours at the weekend. Questions have been raised over whether the donations are legal and if they would have to be returned.

Even before the current donations to Reform, the government was already looking at tightening the rules following the Rycroft Review into foreign financial influence. The government then said it would introduce a £100,000 annual cap on donations from overseas electors.

And the rules go further than simply stopping somebody living abroad from writing an enormous cheque. They would also continue to restrict some people who return to Britain, until they have been resident here for a full calendar year.

Crucially, the government intends the new limit to apply retrospectively to donations made since 25 March this year. Donations caught by the new rules and above the limit could therefore eventually have to be returned.

A panicked Farage, who claims to represent working people, has threatened to stop unions giving cash to the Labour Party in retaliation.

Writing in the Telegraph, Farage said he would look to retaliate by ending the unions’ historic funding of the Labour Party if he becomes prime minister.

He said: “The Unite union alone has given the Labour party over £50m over the course of the last few years. They’ve got the Employment Rights Act, not to mention big pay rises for bus drivers. If anybody is giving money to do political bidding, it’s the trade unions.

“So I would just warn the Labour party here and now: If you try and ban our donors, we in government would certainly ban funding from the trade unions. I don’t want to go down that route. But it’s something we would be prepared to do.”

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds hit back telling HuffPost that trade union donations are different to those from billionaires.

He said: “When we talk about union donations, that is not one entity. That is tens of thousands of ordinary people choosing to make that donation, and it’s banded up and given from the union. But it’s very easy to opt out of that.