NIGEL FARAGE has hosted private events in Dubai as part of a drive to attract wealthy overseas donors to Reform UK, the Bloomberg reported.
The Reform UK leader held an invitation-only lunch on Tuesday (27) at Rockfish, a beach-side restaurant near the Burj Al Arab. The event was backed by Indian billionaire Sunny Varkey, an education entrepreneur who is based in Dubai, people familiar with the event said.
Farage was joined by Nadhim Zahawi, the former Tory chancellor who recently defected to Reform, and the party’s honorary treasurer Nick Candy, a property developer.
Invitations were sent to a small group of wealthy expatriates and Emirati business figures.
The Dubai visit is Farage’s second trip to the United Arab Emirates in two months. In December, the UAE government paid for him to travel to the country to meet senior officials and attend the Formula One Grand Prix, at a cost of about £10,000, according to the UK register of MPs’ interests.
On Wednesday (28), Farage spoke at an event in Dubai hosted by GB News, where he is a regular presenter. The event was also attended by senior figures from the channel and local business leaders.
Farage said he had spoken to “loads” of British expatriates during the trip and was seeking support for Reform, although he said the visit was unlikely to lead to any immediate donation announcements.
The outreach highlights Reform UK’s growing reliance on wealthy donors based outside the UK. In the third quarter of last year, the party received £9 million from Thailand-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne, the largest single donation ever made to a UK political party.
In total, Reform raised more than £10m in private donations in that period, more than all other UK parties combined, according to Electoral Commission data.
Reform figures see the UAE and the wider Middle East as important to the party’s future trade and foreign policy thinking. However, the trip has also drawn criticism from rivals, who say Farage spends too little time in his Clacton constituency. The Dubai visit came shortly after he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos.
According to reports, Varkey’s company, Global Education Management Systems, owns fee-paying schools in England through Bellevue Education.
Reform has led UK opinion polls for much of the past year, though recent surveys show its support has slipped to around 25 per cent. Farage has recently sought to put some distance between himself and US president Donald Trump, while still praising parts of his agenda.
