Uh oh. Things aren’t looking good for the Tories after a number of former Conservative donors paid five figures to attend a fundraiser for Reform UK. Talk about switching sides…

It transpires that multiple Tory donors attended the £1 million-raising Reform UK fundraiser – including Bassim Haidar and Mohamed Amersi, who each paid £25,000 for a VIP ticket to the event to sit with Nigel Farage – while other attendees paid £10,000 for a seat the Oswald’s dinner. In fact, Haidar estimated at least eight significant former Conservative Party donors turned out for the occasion – while Amersi (who donated around £500,000 to the Tories between 2019 and 2021) remarked that a number of ‘disgruntled Tory donors’ appeared at the event, after praising defector Nick Candy who was made Reform treasurer last year.

In response, the Tories have put up a bullish front, with Kemi Badenoch’s spokesperson claiming:

There are lots of donors out there and we’re looking for new donors all the time, bringing donors back to the party, so we are very confident about our fundraising.

But with forms asking for donations of between £1,000 and £10,000 to Reform, perhaps the Tories should be concerned. Nigel Farage’s party overtook Badenoch’s boys in blue in a recent poll – while others suggest Reform are only a few points behind Labour. Will Farage’s prospects improve? Stay tuned…