Billionaires pump millions of pounds into populist right ‘media-political complex’

A handful of billionaires pumped more than £170 million into the UK’s populist right-wing ecosystem, from political figures to news media, over the last five years.

A large chunk of that money is then used to pay far-right politicians for their media appearances, creating a back-door for unregulated political donations, new research has found.

Labour MP, Liam Byrne, former chief secretary to the treasury, carried out the research for his upcoming book Why Populists Are Winning and How to Beat Them.

Given that Byrne’s party is not, in fact, beating the populist right, we’d normally take what he’s got to say with a large pinch of salt and then ignore it along with the other Labour talking heads. However, he’s actually got a point here.

Liam Byrne on populist-right ‘media-political complex’

Byrne said his study:

maps for the first time the financial architecture of Britain’s populist right – and found a media-political complex of extraordinary scale, built in plain sight in just five years.

His figures stem from data covering nearly 500 transactions, spanning from January 2020 to February of this year. The sources included Companies House filings, civil society reports, the Electoral Commission and register of members’ financial interests.

The £170 million was split between populist-right MPs and political parties, alongside their aligned media organisations and thinktanks. Of that, more than £130 million came from just four sources: crypto investor Chris Harborne, financier Jeremy Hosking, hedge fund manager Paul Marshall, and investment firm Legatum.

Likewise, a similar majority of the money — some £133 million — went to just three media organisations: the traditionalist conservative Critic, ‘non-partisan’ alt-right UnHerd, and of course, Reform’s pet propaganda distributor, GB News.

Both Marshall and Legatum bankroll GB News. Marshall also funds UnHerd, whilst Hosking gives his money to the Critic. 

‘Politics is downstream of culture’

Whilst just 14% of the overall funding went directly into politicians’ pockets that doesn’t account for the indirect channels.

Byrne said a further 14% of the funds identified were direct donations to MPs or parties registered with the Electoral Commission. For example, GB News gave Reform’s MPs more than £770,000 for appearing on its channel, effectively paying the party to spread its far-right messaging.

Byrne explained:

Populist funders are not simply bankrolling parties. They are heeding the advice of political strategists from Alain de Benoist to Pat Buchanan and Andrew Breitbart – that politics is downstream of culture. They’re investing directly to support populist parties, but more important they’re investing in a media ecosystem, bankrolling the “polytainment” platforms that reward populist politicians with the currency of our age: attention, amplification, clicks and cash.

Even a stopped clock

As such, Bryne argues that funding for media organisations and thinktanks, which is then ‘paid’ to politicians, is under-scrutinised by public watchdogs. The MP is calling for significant reforms, including that sizeable donations to media organisations must be registered with the Electoral Commission.

He is also advocating for a ban on political donations given in cryptocurrency, amongst other changes. Given that Reform is currently the only party to accept crypto (and lots of it), this move would directly target Farage’s far-right party.

GB News’ dodgy dealings with Reform have been on the Canary’s radar for a long while now. However, let it never be said that we won’t acknowledge a centrist wetwipe when they get something right for a change. Even a stopped clock and all that.

Far-right billionaires are channelling vast amounts of money into building their own media infrastructure. Those media organisations are then handing money over to their pet populist-right politicians.

And yes, that is a massive problem for the security of our democracy.

Featured image via the Canary