Reform UK

Reform UK - previously the Brexit Party - is a right-wing political party led by Nigel Farage, who is also its MP for Clacton. The party has eight MPs and, as of March 2026, is the best-funded political party in the UK.

Its climate and energy policies include scrapping net zero, cutting all renewable subsidies, reversing the ban on new North Sea oil and gas drilling as a "day one" priority, lifting the ban on fracking, and reopening domestic coalmines. Reform's leadership have claimed that there is "no evidence that man-made CO2 is going to change climate change" and that "the sun or volcanoes" are responsible for warming (Richard Tice), and man produces only "about 3%" of CO2 (Nigel Farage). The party's climate policy has been advised by the Heartland Institute UK/Europe (a think tank which denies the science of climate change), whose director Lois Perry has claimed "Do you know why they [Reform] are abolishing net zero and why that's their policy? Me". DeSmog revealed in April 2026 that £24 million - two thirds of Reform's total income - has come from donors with financial interests in fossil fuels, with the largest chunk coming from Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, whose company AML Global supplies aviation and maritime fuel. Reform's closest US counterpart is the MAGA movement: Farage has cultivated a well-documented friendship with Donald Trump, and the party's policy platform has been explicitly compared to Project 2025 by senior figures around the party.

Reform has also developed extensive ties to the cryptocurrency industry. The party's two largest donors are crypto billionaires: Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo. The latter is the co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating US anti-money laundering laws and was subsequently pardoned by Donald Trump. Delo has donated at least £8 million to Reform. Farage has championed the crypto industry in return, telling an industry conference "I am your champion" and pledging to create a state bitcoin reserve and slash taxes on the sector. He also used an LBC appearance to promote Harborne's company Tether without disclosing his donor's financial interest. Reform is the first UK political party to accept crypto donations.

The party has faced repeated financial and legal scrutiny. In 2026, the Electoral Commission launched an investigation into a £5 million personal gift to Farage from Harborne that was not declared. In July 2026, multiple Reform transactions were reported to the National Crime Agency, and the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into alleged attempts to solicit illegal foreign donations, exposed by an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News and Verbatim. Reform's former Welsh leader Nathan Gill was jailed for 10.5 years in 2025 for accepting pro-Russian bribes as a Brexit Party MEP. The party has also faced numerous suspensions and resignations of councillors since its gains in the May 2025 local elections, with Hope Not Hate reporting that almost one in ten Reform councillors quit in the first year.

On abortion, senior figures including Farage have called the 24-week limit "utterly ludicrous". Anti-abortion group Alliance Defending Freedom has brokered meetings between Farage and Trump administration officials and orchestrated Farage's appearance before the US House Judiciary Committee in September 2025.