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Reform UK has received its second £36m donation in two days as crypto-billionaire matches record contribution.
Thai-based businessman Christopher Harborne, the party's biggest donor, said on Saturday he was matching the donation by Ben Delo, revealed on Friday.
Natasha Devon reacts to the two record-breaking donations.
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
#NatashaDevon #ReformUK #Reform #NigelFarage #donations #ukpolitics #uknews #LBC
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0:00
Was Andy Burnham's decision not to cap political donations last month fatal for democracy
0:09
That's the question that I want to ask you. 03456060973 is the number to call if you have an answer
0:16
The reason that I'm asking you, of course, is that during the past 24 hours, we've learned that Ben Dello
0:22
who is a crypto billionaire who was convicted for failing to implement adequate money laundering
0:28
controls at his crypto company, cryptocurrency company in the United States, and then subsequently
0:35
pardoned by Trump. He donated £36 million to the Reform Party. And then shortly afterwards
0:43
Christopher Harbourn, who is the same guy that gave Farage a £5 million gift shortly before
0:48
Farage decided to run as an MP in Clacton matched that. So they now have 72 million between these two
0:57
donors. And I think that there is something that is being missed here. Well, actually
1:04
I think there's two things that are being missed in the discussions that I've heard so far on this
1:08
story. The first is this. So these men have said that they have given these donations in order to
1:14
level the playing field. You heard that in the news headlines. I also heard a caller to Vanessa's
1:19
show earlier in the day say, reform are these kinds of, and I'm paraphrasing, but they said
1:24
you know, they're the plucky underdog. They're a small party. They're new to the scene
1:29
But what those takes fail to take into account is that reform already received more donations than
1:36
any other political party during the past year. Reform were already on 34 million
1:41
conservatives not far behind on 31 million labor 17 million and the lib dems on 13 million
1:50
so not only are reform not a plucky underdog in the sense that they are stuffed full of former
1:56
and their leader farage has been very influential on the political scene for more than a decade now
2:01
but they were also already receiving more funding than any other party before these two mega donations
2:09
so that's the first thing that I think that is being missed the second thing that I think is
2:14
being missed is this so people are saying well you know Labour get donations from the unions
2:22
but the unions represent 6.6 million working people that's who they are there to represent
2:31
the interests of they want to protect workers rights just under a quarter of working people
2:38
in this country are represented by a union. And there's a bigger picture here that I think is
2:44
being missed because the interests of working people like you like me people who are not billionaires are increasingly at odds with the interests of the super super rich in a number of different ways First of all the super rich traditionally try to avoid paying
3:09
taxes as much as possible and we need them to pay an equivalent percentage of taxes the rest of us
3:18
do in order to fund things like the NHS and our schools and all of the other services that make
3:23
our communities run. The super wealthy also tend to have a vested interest in erasing workers
3:32
rights, the kind of rights that give us paid holiday, paid sick leave, maternity leave
3:38
other parental leave. They generally are in the interest of wanting to erase those in favour of
3:49
employers. And we know that large companies are increasingly gobbling up small independent
3:55
companies and becoming more and more powerful. We know that the super wealthy buy up a lot of
4:02
real estate and that our country is enduring a shortage of housing for the rest of us
4:11
And also climate change. So super wealthy people have a disproportionate carbon footprint because
4:17
of the amount of traveling that they do, because they tend to have mega yachts, they tend to travel
4:23
by private aviation, etc, etc. So their carbon footprint is disproportionately high, but they are
4:30
they are protected more than the rest of us from the consequences of climate change
4:39
The most vulnerable people feel the consequences of climate change first. So we've got these
4:45
powerful, wealthy, vested interests who probably want climate change, man-made climate change to be
4:52
denied, for all of the property to be gobbled up as just assets for them, you know, their second
5:01
homes maybe, who probably want workers' rights to be erased at the expense of employers being able
5:12
to do whatever they want, and who will try and pay as little in the way of taxation as possible
5:18
Now, I'm not saying all super wealthy people are like this. I'm saying that that is what characterizes generally the interests of super wealthy people and that working people always
5:28
suffer as a result of that. And so for super wealthy people to have, for example, privileged
5:38
access to ministers because they've made a huge donation to a party, and this has always gone on
5:43
and it's not unique to reform. We've just never seen it on this scale before. Or for very wealthy
5:48
people to be able to shape policy in their own image is going to harm us And that what I think is being missed It not the same A union donating to a political party a union that represents 6
6:04
million working people and their interests is not the same as a very, very wealthy person
6:12
individual making a donation of this size. And that's why I'm going to ask
6:21
do you think that Andy Burnham should have taken the chance when he had it
6:25
to cap political donations? 03456060973 is the number that you need. I was reading a really interesting piece. It was an interview by Zoe Williams in The Guardian with
6:37
Naomi Klein. Naomi Klein's doing some really interesting work recently. She has appeared on
6:44
some podcasts that I've seen. I've also read some essays that she's written, examining the way that
6:50
the very, very wealthy, I'm talking about the kind of new tech oligarchy, examining the way that they
6:59
are living their lives and what that means for global society. And on one of the podcasts I saw
7:05
her on she was talking about how a lot of tech oligarchs are building luxury underground bunkers
7:12
and we're going to be talking about that in the next hour how they've kind of given up on humanity
7:16
they think that either world war three or water shortages or some kind of climate disaster is
7:22
inevitable and they're trying to insulate themselves from the consequences of that
7:26
but she was also talking about the psychology of it the psychology of amassing that much wealth
7:35
there's that meme that does the rounds isn't there which says if there was one monkey that
7:41
hoarded all of the bananas while other monkeys starved we would say what's wrong with that monkey
7:47
and we would consider it to be an evil presence maybe we would study it in some way to try and
7:54
find out what is wrong with that monkey. But when one human hoards all of the wealth
8:00
whilst other people are suffering and starving, we put that person on the cover of magazines
8:07
And we kind of hero worship them. And we think that they represent something special
8:12
And what Naomi Klein is arguing in her latest book is she said, yeah, they have to tell
8:18
themselves that there's something special as well. In order to justify in their mind having this
8:23
huge obscene amount of wealth they have to tell themselves a story to justify that because it's
8:31
not normal it's not normal to watch your fellow human beings in in the west you know enduring a
8:36
cost of living crisis in other areas of the world enduring disproportionately the consequences of
8:43
climate change suffering and dying it not normal to see that whilst you are amassing more and more accruing more and more wealth even as you sleep and to not feel guilty about that That not normal psychologically So in order to justify that
8:57
in your own mind you have to tell yourself a story and the story that you tell yourself is that you
9:01
are special and that you were created differently from those other human beings, that you are
9:07
superior, that you were born with superior intelligence, talent etc. And what Naomi Klein
9:16
argues I'll read you the the quote directly she says we end the book concluding that wealth has
9:23
its own deranging effects it almost inevitably turns you into a supremacist because humans are
9:30
creatures of story and you need to rationalize why you why do you have so much in a time of so
9:36
much want and need and the only possible story that's available is that there's something about
9:42
you that justifies it. So she's arguing that to be that wealthy, almost inevitably, inexorably
9:50
leads to a kind of supremacist mindset. And like I say, this won't be true in 100% of cases
9:56
But I think that that is a very, very compelling argument that Naomi Klein is making
10:02
So when we have these extremely wealthy people making these unprecedented donations
10:08
and potentially influencing policy and shaping government policy in their own image
10:16
For all of the reasons that I have outlined, I think that we should be extremely, extremely concerned
10:25
I think it could be fatal for our democracy. And it's really interesting
10:30
I was reading a piece about the, it's called the Amendments to the Election Bill
10:35
which Andy Burnham at the end of last month confirmed that he was not going to go back to
10:41
and was not going to take the opportunity to support a cap of donations on half a million
10:47
pounds per year from any individual or organisation. And Stella Creasy, who's one of the backbenchers
10:54
who tabled that amendment calling for the donations cap said, the public won't forgive us
11:00
if we miss this chance to clean up Westminster, the public won't forgive us if we miss this chance
11:08
to clean up Westminster. Has the chance been missed, do you think? Is that it now
11:17
Is democracy truly up for sale to the highest bidder? Are they treating it like... I saw one
11:23
commentator who said that these very wealthy people are basically treating democracy like a
11:29
World Cup playing with our lives our rights our ability to afford the things that we need to
11:36
survive has Andy Burnham done something or not done something that will ultimately prove fatal
11:45
for our democracy and our way of life
#news