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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is expected to see "more money coming" to Reform after Christopher Harborne's record donation to the party.Speaking to the People's Channel, GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope predicted a further financial boost for the party, as Mr Farage vowed to go "double or quits" on this year's local elections.FULL STORY HERE.
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0:00
Faraj, this is a massive war chest for local elections
0:02
£5 million. It's huge. He's checking all on this, all on black, you might think
0:07
if he's in an electoral casino with May elections coming up. But he's not green
0:12
Well, that can happen too. And the Greens are surging in the polls, Ben
0:16
Believe that for one moment. £5 million of the £9 million given to him by Christopher Harbourn back in August
0:22
I think this shows to me that there's more money coming in to reform the UK. The fact that he's willing to spend so much of the money
0:28
he's publicly attracted from donors. Says to me there's more money coming down the tracks
0:32
We don't know yet how big in fundraising he's been in the fourth quarter of the last calendar year
0:38
but I suggest to me more money is coming in. The way he spends money is different, though
0:42
He's spending money through direct leafleting. Dan Kuczynski knows all about that from his time in North Shropshire
0:47
as a Tory MP. That's going on the donut, the M25 area around London
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where Boris Johnson did so well when he got rid of Ken Livingston
0:56
and then beat off other Labour candidates then. Also, he's spending money in May in Scotland and Wales
1:02
the elections there. They're trying to target the money where they think they can get the best return
1:08
And the one way they wouldn't do it in the old days is they are doing direct social media messaging
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as it were, from Nigel Farage to voters. So it's like WhatsApps
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Dear whoever you are, vote for me today. I need your help, Nigel
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And that connection through social media, through WhatsApp, of SMS messaging between the leader, Farage, and the voter
1:30
That's really important. That's all that counts. If you vote Reform UK, you're backing Farage personally
1:34
almost more than the actual party, and they're using social media to maximise that
1:39
which I think is quite interesting. It is interesting. And, Daniel, have Reform arguably
1:43
got a harder task at these elections in May because there's so much pressure on them
1:47
they are ahead in the polls, there's a high bar to achieve, and whereas, say, the likes of, I don't know, Labour would focus on
1:53
maybe London, the Lib Dems are in the south-east, and the shires If you got Plaid Cymru and Wales of course reform really are targeting the entire country aren they Is there more pressure on reform than any other party come May
2:07
Well, of course, there's a very high expectation for them, but it's the first time in my lifetime
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that we've entered into this sort of five-party type system here, and it will be very interesting to see what happens here in London
2:20
as a result of the Greens taking so much support from Labour. I'm actually standing to be a councillor in the May's elections in May de Vale
2:29
For who? For the Conservatives, of course. Ah, you're not the president. There's more chance of me flying to the moon
2:36
Well, there's been plenty of you who are the president. But in reality, that constellation of five political parties
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and the splits between them, it could throw up some very interesting results in the elections in May
2:49
Yeah, and there's actually not much difference, I argue, between Zach Palanski and Nigel Farage, apart from the politics
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They are both, I guess, anti-establishment candidates who are sort of breaking up and taking a sledgehammer to the norm
2:59
Well, there's one major difference. Mr Polanski is a quasi-communist. And his economic policy would do even more damage to the country than the current socialist administration
3:10
The Reform Party at least understands that the only way that the economy will be protected is by lowering taxes for hardworking businesses
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rather than increasing them, as we've seen over the last 18 months from Sir Keir
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Yeah, he also wants to legalise heroin and crack and open the borders to as many illegal migrants as possible
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Chopper, the £5 million war chest for these local May elections from reform
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how does that compare to, say, other parties of yesteryear? Is that an extraordinary high amount
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It is extraordinary for a living individual. There's never been a bigger donation from one person living
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money in bequests and the like, but never that much money from someone alive. And that's why it's so dramatic and so big
3:51
And I think, you know, he's got lots of money, Farage, and he's going to spend it
3:54
What parties have to do is spend donors' money on winning elections and by and the like That what he doing Looking at the record though just of last year of this party between May and December last year there were 171 council by Reform 160
4:10
Now, if you push that on to a vote share, and this is work done by Find Out Now, the pollster
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that will give Reform a 28% vote share. LibDems, 19%. Interesting for Dan Kaczynski there, not the Tories
4:22
They're at 16%. Labour at 15%. Greens at 11%. So it just shows, I mean, Lib Dems do well with local voting and do less well nationally, but it shows how it is holding firm
4:32
There's a feeling that we had reached peak Farage towards the end of last year, Ben
4:37
And various choice wander up to me and they say, oh, is he ill? Is he tired
4:43
Well, no, you want him to be tired. You want him to be ill. I see no evidence of that at all with Nigel Farage
4:48
He's carrying on and is increasingly getting his eye on the prize. He's increasingly saying he can be prime minister, which he never would do
4:54
when I interviewed him head of the May local elections last year, he wouldn't say four times he could imagine himself
5:00
going through the black front door of Downing Street. Now I think he can. What is interesting, though, is, and I hope Chris will agree with me
5:06
but what is interesting is more and more people are coming to me and saying, Kemi's getting her feet under the table
5:12
and she's improving her performance on the floor of the House of Commons
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That, it would be fascinating to see now as she establishes herself as the leader of the Conservative Party
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You know, Margaret Thatcher came in for a lot of criticism in 75, 76
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It was only later on that she really started to take control of the Conservative Party
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And I very much hope and expect that Kemi will start to get people to start thinking
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about the Conservative Party as the main opposition to Labour rather than the reform
5:41
Is there no pressure on the Tories then come May? Is it too early? Has Kemi been in the job for such a short amount of time
5:47
that regardless of what happens in May, she's safe? There's a huge pressure on Kemi
5:51
and, you know, I mean, if these defections... You referred to some of my former parliamentary colleagues defecting
5:57
If that continues and if reform do extremely well in the elections in May then that could be rather discombobulating for the Conservative Party But it the trajectory of Kami Badenock over the last 18 months which is interesting
6:12
She's had a visible turnaround. Her performances at PMQs and so on. It is. And it's also just as important on the floor of the House of Commons for Conservative MPs to give them that sort of lift is also for the party activists
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In my association, in Westminster Conservative Association, more and more people are telling me that they're impressed by Kemi
6:32
and that gives the party activists the encouragement to go out in the pouring rain and delivering leaflets
6:38
and talking to people on the doorstep. But that's all it is, though, isn't it
6:42
She's staunched the bleeding in the polls, but she hasn't yet punched out from beyond her base
6:47
And, by the way, we should say happy birthday to Kemi Badenoch. Oh, is it today? She's 46 today
6:51
Happy birthday, Kemi Badenoch. Happy birthday, Kemi. But, yeah, she has to punch out and try and win that support
6:57
because it's already very well convincing your base or your supporters to go out in the pouring rain
7:01
But why does anyone care? What our viewers and listeners always say to us is they had 14 years to do it
7:06
You had 14 years to do it, didn't you, Dan Kaczynski? And he didn't do it. Well, we did something very important
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and I've argued with Mr Farage on this point on GB News on numerous occasions
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but we did something extremely important. In the first nine years of our administration
7:20
we've reduced the deficit every single year. That's true. And so by 2019, this country almost paid for herself
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The first time this country has paid for herself since Margaret Thatcher
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Then, of course, the pandemic. Then, of course, economic crisis. Cha-ching! Another 600 billion on borrowing to keep everybody afloat
7:40
But we did what was expected, which is in peacetime. You're meant to reduce the deficit
7:46
What the socialists have done, and at the moment we have peacetime. We don't have a pandemic. We don't have a national crisis
7:51
but they are borrowing massively. And so we've got to the stage now today
7:55
that our debt interest payments this year will be £120 billion, which is more than the defence and education budgets combined
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