Tories rocked as billionaire married to Holly Valance takes large Reform UK job

A billionaire property tycoon who bankrolled Tory election campaigns has been unveiled as Reform UK’s new finance boss.

Nick Candy, who is married to actress and pop star Holly Valance, claims Nigel Farage will be the next Prime Minister. The businessman pledged to raise “more money than any political party in the UK has ever raised”.

He is set to be named as the party’s treasurer in the latest coup for Mr Farage and a heavy blow to Kemi Badenoch. The mega-rich donor ploughed more than £270,000 into Tory coffers between 2020 and 2022 – but said he’s had enough of broken promises.

The tycoon, who was tipped to buy Chelsea FC in 2022, moaned there had been a “complete breach of trust with the wealth creators in our country”. He hit the headlines when The Mirror revealed he had attended a Tory Christmas party on December 14, 2020 – when social mixing between households indoors was banned.

He told The Times: “I have today resigned my membership of the Conservative Party after many years of active support and substantial donations to the party. I am sorry to say there have been too many broken promises and a complete breach of trust with the wealth creators in our country.

“Nigel Farage is a close personal friend of mine, and Reform UK represents the future of British politics. I am pleased to announce that I will now become the Treasurer for Reform UK and intend to raise enough funds for them to win the next general election.”

Mr Candy, 51, is set to take up his new role in 2025. He told The Independent: “I will also raise Reform more money than any political party in the UK has ever raised. Nigel will be the next PM of the UK.”

Ahead of the general election there were rumours that Ms Valance was going to stand as a Reform candidate. The couple were pictured with Mr Farage and Mr Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in 2022.

Earlier this year they attended the launch of Liz Truss fanclub the Popular Conservatism group. Ms Valance said at that event: “Everyone starts off as a leftie and then wakes up at some point after you start making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home and then realise what c*** ideas they all are. And then you go to the right.”

Mr Candy was a key figure in the bid to get Tory Shaun Bailey elected as London Mayor. After he was pictured at the shindig at Conservative HQ in Westminster in 2020, his team said: “Nick Candy attended the office of the Shaun Bailey campaign for an end of year review on 14 December 2020. He gave a short thank you speech to the team and spent some time with Shaun Bailey to discuss campaign matters before leaving shortly afterwards.”