Two Tory donors pay £25,000 to attend Reform fundraising dinner
Two Tory donors pay £25,000 to attend Reform fundraising dinner
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Bassim Haidar says Nigel Farage’s party ‘worth considering’ and Mohamed Amersi says energy at event was ‘electric’. Two major Conservative donors, Bassim Haidar and Mohamed Amersi, paid £25,000 each to attend a Reform fundraising dinner on Tuesday night, and sources say the party brought in pledges of more than £1m beforehand from businesspeople.
![[Nigel Farage and Nick Candy]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9f5ef7065de3626b1c5b96f74fcc2521304c3daf/44_400_7591_4557/master/7591.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Reform sources said ticket prices ranged from £10,000 for the dinner to £25,000 for a seat at the top table with Nigel Farage at Oswald’s in Mayfair, central London. Haidar, an IT billionaire and Lebanese-Irish national, gave the Conservatives more than £700,000 in the run-up to the last election and is one of a string of Tory backers who have flirted with Reform as it grows in the polls. He has previously spoken about his unhappiness with changes to government policy on non-doms.
![[Lee Anderson, Richard Tice and James McMurdock]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3a6fee554fcc236a4b92826fe01d94a7b69d21ba/0_0_3997_2398/master/3997.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Haidar told the Guardian: “The event was a valuable opportunity to learn more about the party’s mission, and I believe they have a good one to ‘make the UK great again’. It’s worth considering them as a strong alternative.”. Amersi, who gave almost £500,000 to the Tories between 2019 and 2021, lost a high-profile legal battle with the former Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie in 2023, and the Tory MP David Davis subsequently made a string of serious allegations against him under parliamentary privilege. Amersi has also spoken of potentially donating to Labour politicians.
Amersi told the Guardian: “The energy in the room was just really electric. It does feel like momentum is behind Reform and the question is what happens to the strands of conservatism, Reform and the Conservative party. People like me, who straddle both, will certainly be pushing for a unified stance ….
