Cash-rich Reform UK launches fightback with new media platform
Cash-rich Reform UK launches fightback by unveiling a new media platform to amplify its message.
(Updated: 22 Oct 2026 03:07PM)
LONDON, Oct 22 : Flush with money from billionaire donors, Nigel Farage's Reform UK has started hiring staff for a YouTube-based TV channel to bypass established broadcasters and capitalise on fundraising unrivalled by any major political party in Europe.
After weeks of bruising headlines over donations and racism that have seen the populist, anti-immigration party led by the veteran Brexit campaigner lose its lead in opinion polls, Reform has started to aggressively spend a bumper £72 million ($96 million) donated by two crypto businessmen.
Twelve adverts for media jobs are part of a strategy to regain ground and present the party's message in a more controlled way, according to at least eight party officials.
By building on Reform's established YouTube offering, already home to around eight posts a week, the party aims to create a daily channel to try to break the monopoly of an "establishment media" it regards as hostile.
The expansion, enabled by the donations from Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo in September, will also help Reform train up more media performers, Gawain Towler, a member of the party's governing board, told Reuters.
That would offer respite to Reform's eight lawmakers, who face mainstream media sometimes several times a week each.
PARALLEL WITH TRUMP TV
"The media always say they offer a fair hearing to all opinions," said Towler, at Farage's side for more than 20 years. But "when it's Reform, they just want to say we're horrible".
About half of the £72 million will cover the running of Reform's headquarters until a national election due by mid-2029, and the funds will also help produce more policy, recruit advisers, expand campaign operations and launch a newspaper with an initial print run of 15 million, the officials said.
The TV offering will be similar to US President Donald Trump's Trump TV – a streaming channel airing White House-sanctioned content 24 hours a day.
With an estimated initial budget exceeding £10 million and plans for 25 journalists and editors, Reform intends the channel's interviews, documentaries and other content to build on its already well-established social media offering.
There is peril. Reform could be forced to hand the funds back if the governing Labour Party changes the rules on donations – something Reform officials say they will contest.
But for now, Reform will spend to try to regain ground lost to Labour, under media-savvy new Prime Minister Andy Burn
Source: CNA https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/cash-rich-reform-uk-launches-fightback-new-media-platform-6481801
