BBC Question Time erupts into laughter as Danny Kruger defends £72 million Reform UK donations
Question Time returns for a new series from Salisbury, with politicians, commentators and members of the public debating topics including the threat of artificial intelligence on mankind and the £72m donations received by Reform UK
Reform UK’s Danny Kruger could not keep a straight face when trying to defend the donations(Image: BBC Question Time)
Reform UK’s Danny Kruger was grilled over the party’s £72 million donations on tonight’s Question Time.
Colossal donations from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, two cryptocurrency billionaires who until recently lived in Hong Kong and Thailand respectively caused quiet the debate on BBC Question Time tonight.
Tonight’s show, hosted in Sailsbury, featured the transport secretary Heidi Alexander; the shadow minister for women and equalities Joy Morrissey; Reform UK’s Danny Kruger and the former leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas.
An audience member named Stella Smith asked “Is the £72million in donations received by Reform this week a threat to democracy?” To which Caroline Lucas responded: “Yes, it is a massive threat to democracy. It really does look as if it’s the case that British democracy is up for sale to the highest bidder and that frankly is obscene and we should be sending a very clear message to say that British democracy is not for sale.”
She added: “I don’t think the British public are the fools that Reform seems to take them for so we really need to clean this up.”
Reform UK’s Danny Kruger attempted to defend the party’s donations but while doing so the audience erupted into laughter. He began by saying: “I think that it’s an admirable thing that these two men, that will get nothing for it, no peerage, no policy, they’re not getting anything for it. There’s absolutely nothing in it for them. They are British voters registered here, British citizens who have made their money, they’ve been passed by the electoral commission as permitted donors to political parties so I’m afraid it’s absolutely great that they’ve done so because they’ve given Reform a chance to stand up against the established parties.”
Danny was then questioned by Joy Morrissey about Nigel Farage’s personal gift of £5million at which point the audience erupted into laughter once again.
The Reform MP said: “So that was a personal gift given to him before he was a politician.and completely consistent with the rules.” While in the background a panelist can be heard saying: “He can’t even say it with a straight face.”
Host Fiona has to interject saying: “Hang on, when you say it’s consistent with the rules it is being assessed as to if it is consistent or not.”
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander was then asked if her issue was the size of the donations or the face they made the donations at all. She said: “I believe that there should be a cap in place and that is the change we are making through the elections bill.”
After being questioned by Joy Morrissey about donations made by unions not being included in the donation cap Heidi said: “I think that trade unions play an important role in our society… I go back to the point I made previously, these are invidual donations that ordinary men and women decide to make through their trade union and I think that broadens the base of our democracy and I think that’s a good thing for the country.”
Ministers have already taken steps to introduce a £100,000 ceiling on the sum of money that can be donated to political parties by anyone living abroad, which would also be enforced for the first 12 months after British expats come back to the UK.
The changes would be backdated to March, prompting questions about whether Reform can retain the twin £36million contributions from Ben Delo, who was living in Hong Kong until recently, and Christopher Harborne, who was living in Thailand.
Asked whether the donations would be affected by new rules on overseas donors, Mr Farage said: “Both these donations are 100% compliant with the law today, of that there is no question whatsoever.” Mr Farage then suggested they would no longer be permissible under changes proposed in the Representation of the People Bill, which has now entered committee stage.
When pressed on whether Mr Delo and Mr Harborne were UK residents as of March 25 — a detail that could have a direct bearing on the validity of their donations — he said: “I’m not going to go into their particular details.
“All I’m going to say is, with the law of the land as it stands, they are both compliant. Now, there is talk, and Angela Rayner was talking about this yesterday, there is talk of them retrospectively declaring donations illegally. Well, that simply cannot be.”
BBC Question Time returns next week in Cambridge and again on Thursday, October 1 in North London.
