City of London brings its courtship of Nigel Farage and Reform UK out of the shadows

For months, the “courtship” between the City of London and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was conducted in whispers, but now both sides are making their engagement public.

Senior figures in the banking and asset management sectors had previously been reluctant to announce any ties to the right-wing party, despite its commanding lead in the polls.

“When I speak to people, they say, ‘We are genuinely interested in what is going on, but don’t tell anyone we asked,'” Gawain Towler, Farage’s former right-hand man, told POLITICO in August.

Now, however, the wind appears to have shifted. Farage is engaging with delegates today (January 21) at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.

“That shy, quiet, ‘don’t tell anyone I’m meeting with Reform’ attitude is gone,” Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice said in an interview with POLITICO. “I think word has got out that these guys are actually business people, they know what they are talking about, and they understand how capital markets work.”

Pointing to the curiosity surrounding the party currently leading the polls, Tice added that the City “loves backing winners.”

Reform began establishing its agenda for the financial sector in November by hosting an event in central London to launch working groups tasked with developing policy in four key areas: regulation, growth capital for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), pensions and savings, and taxation.

The groups operate under the Centre for a Better Britain, a think tank close to Reform, and are led by Tice. He has dubbed the future proposals “Big Bang Two,” stating that the policies should coincide with the 40th anniversary of the deregulation “Big Bang” of the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher.

City representatives confirm Tice’s claims. Several major lobby groups attended Reform UK’s party conference for the first time last autumn, while others held private meetings with the party.

Tice stated that he has hosted dozens of breakfasts and dinners with industry professionals since the summer, and that efforts to lure the financial sector away from Labour and the Conservatives are finally bearing fruit.

“The number of donors giving to the Conservative Party is still far higher than anyone else,” said Seb Wallace, an executive at investment management firm Triple Point. “But the trend is definitely towards Reform.”

Tice also noted that he expects a series of donations to flow to the party from the City within the next six to 18 months.

This pressure has caused the financial establishment’s relationship with the party to slowly emerge from the shadows. Last week, key City figures were spotted in the audience at a press conference announcing former Conservative Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi’s defection to Reform.

The powerful trade body, the Investment Association, held an event with the party in November, while the Quoted Companies Alliance—a key trade association for small and mid-sized publicly traded companies—openly shared on LinkedIn that they had held a “useful discussion” with Tice over pastries.

Riccardo Tordera-Ricchi, director of policy and government relations at the UK lobbying group the Payments Association, made a similar comment, noting a “balanced conversation” in which Tice sought to position Reform UK “as a credible political force with attention to detail and an economic plan.”

The party is also making its own adjustments to win over the City. Despite previously characterizing the event as a “globalist jaunt,” Farage is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos this year to meet with the world’s leading financiers.

However, there remains a tendency to exercise caution regarding chats with the party. A City lobbyist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they are advising clients to avoid associating with Reform in public until the May elections, where the party is expected to achieve a significant victory.

In the meantime, the biggest hurdle appears to be questions regarding the quality of Reform’s future parliamentary party and concerns over the leadership’s ability to keep MPs under control in the event of an eventual victory.

“If you have a party of nutters, you end up with the same problems the Labour Party has experienced,” Wallace said. “Nobody agrees on anything.”

Stephen Snowden, head of fixed income at Artemis, asked: “Does the bond market want [a Reform victory]? Yes, because I think they will be fiscally responsible; that is my best guess. But I have a major reservation regarding this: Can they find enough functional people to do the job?”

Whether the party can achieve sufficient growth over the next three years is a major point of concern. Reform is tasked with finding constituency chairmen, local activists, and door-knocking volunteers to build a functional party machine.

“Without anyone in place, I think the probability of a candidate with a dodgy Twitter account and a controversial personal life succeeding is much higher,” Snowden said.

Nevertheless, the party does not appear overly troubled by these concerns. “I understand the City is right to question this, and in a sense, they are challenging us to answer it,” Tice said. “We accept that challenge, and we will provide a satisfactory answer regarding this within the next two years.”

But Reform’s policies have already begun to cause unease in the City. In September, the party stated that Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) should not be permitted to hold non-public assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

This initiative has clearly unsettled many working in these sectors. Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech, described the plan as “incredibly short-sighted.”

“To say that the LGPS should not invest in non-public assets is to say that we should have pension funds that underperform and run deficits,” Levene argued.