Nigel Farage targets hedge funds as key to Ukip’s
financial future
Party’s drive to
woo City investors, shown in leaked internal 2012 report, saw Ukip outspend
Labour for first time last May
Rajeev Syal
The Guardian, Friday 2 January 2015 / http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/02/nigel-farage-ukip-target-hedge-fund-city-finances-report
Nigel Farage, who has pledged to build a
“people’s army” separate from vested interests, has identified hedge funds and
their owners as crucial to Ukip’s financial future.
A leaked internal report shows the party’s
leader argued that “the key to money for us will be the hedge fund industry” as
he addressed Ukip’s executive committee in 2012.
He also recounted a meeting with a
billionaire businessman in Switzerland
The documents will be embarrassing for members
of the anti-federalist party who have been keen to argue that the Tories are
underwritten by the City.
In the leader’s report, dated 3 September
2012, Farage reviews the party’s recent successes and says: “It is very
interesting. We are very close to the tipping point of being able to do
something very very big.
“The type of people we are talking to has
changed. People who would have slammed the door in our face 3 years ago are
inviting us. The key to money for us will be the hedge fund industry,” the
minutes say.
According to another leaked document,
Farage delivered a brutal character assassination of one candidate on the
grounds that he would not be able to impress City supporters. He said that the
named party member had “no forcefulness and no passion that sticks and
registers”, adding: “We could not take him to meet the large City donors.”
Ukip has had many successes in wooing
donors from the City since 2012.
One convert is Andy Brough, the star fund
manager at Schroders, who has reportedly joined Farage’s party after growing
weary with the coalition government and European attacks on the City.
Farage also has the support of the
influential hedge fund manager Crispin Odey, whose former father-in-law is the
News Corp chairman, Rupert Murdoch.
Odey is not a member of Ukip, but threw a
party at his Odey Asset Management offices last spring to introduce Farage to
potential supporters and donors.
Christopher Mills, a co-founder of JO
Hambro, a major hedge fund, gave £50,000 in his first donation to Ukip last
year. He previously gave to Hastings and Rye Conservative Association and
appeared in the Sunday Times Rich List with a personal fortune of £200m.
The Tories remain the main beneficiaries of
hedge fund firms and their owners. Sir Michael Hintze, a billionaire hedge fund
manager, gave £1.5m last year – the biggest single gift to the Tories in six
years. Other big Tory donors from the City include James Lupton, Lord Farmer,
Lord Fink and Alexander Fraser.
Insiders say Ukip’s finances are healthy as
the general election approaches. The party outspent Labour for the first time
in a national election last May, according to Electoral Commission data
published last month.
Farage’s party spent £2.96m at the European
election, and now sends 24 representatives to Brussels
as the biggest British party in Europe .
Labour spent just over £1m.
A Ukip spokeswoman said the party does not
comment on leaked documents.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage told the party’s
executive committee that hedge funds would be key to the party’s future.
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