Notorious Gem of Tanzania (Wrekin Ruby) & Nigel Farage's mega-donations
Many people have seen the recent news about Reform UK party receiving two donations of £36 million each. Therefore, it is quite a shock to see the party simultaneously being subject to a winding up petition under the Insolvency Act.
UK law doesn't require a contract to be in writing. Nigel Farage presents himself as somebody you can have a pint with. If somebody agrees to pay for a round of drinks you don't ask them to provide a written contract. Likewise, when Nigel Farage and other leaders in his party made promises to pay election expenses, I felt that was like offering to buy a round of drinks. It was a verbal contract.
The failure to make those payments provided a justification to begin insolvency proceedings. Does that mean Nigel Farage can simply pay me the money and exit the insolvency procedure? Maybe not. The judge may be tempted to have a closer look at Reform UK party and keep these people under judicial surveillance until the company files the report from the auditor.
We can find old reports from other Reform UK legal entities online. Here are the 2021 accounts. This is the relevant statement where the auditor contemplates whether money loaned to the party by Richard Tice could be a risk to solvency:
Material uncertainty related to going concern
We draw attention to the Balance Sheet which indicates that as at 31 December 2021, the Party had net liabilities of £849,456. As stated in the going concern accounting policy note, these liabilities consist mainly of directors loans from Richard Tice and we have received suitable reassurances from him about the intention for these to help grow the party in the medium term.
When the auditor writes their report for the next set of accounts, they will have to mention a whole range of scandals much bigger than that loan.
Remember that most volunteers and donors put in their time and money and they can not get their time and money back later. Yet Richard Tice put in his money as a loan, in other words, when other people contribute money, he gets his money back.
The existence of loans like this helps understand directors' willingness to accept donations that other parties might not touch with a ten foot pole.
Notice that Reform UK announced the mega donations just two weeks before the deadline for the accounts and auditor's report. Hence my curiosity about whether the publicity about these donations was meant to either sway the auditor or distract the public from concerns the auditor will express in the published report.
We saw the same thing with the notorious Gem of Tanzania. By coincidence, in November 2025, shortly before the end of Reform UK's first accounting year, the International Gem Society published a detailed history of the scandal. News reports claim the gem was worth little more than £100. Nonetheless, Wrekin Construction listed it on their balance sheet as an asset worth £11 million.
When I saw the news about these mega-donations, I felt déjà-vu. If it sounds too good to be true, maybe it is.
Sub-contractors and suppliers to Wrekin Construction felt they could give the company favorable credit terms because the balance sheet filed at Companies House looked extremely healthy. Some of the suppliers purchased trade credit insurance and when Wrekin Construction went bust, the insurance companies had to reimburse the suppliers who were not paid.
When people see these figures in the accounting documents and news stories about Reform UK, they may be fooled to be overoptimistic, in the short term, about Reform UK's future prospects.
The new legislation going through the UK parliament tells us these donations will be converted to loans. The party will be obliged to repay the money within 30 days.
The directors have known about this new reality since 25 March 2026 but their words and actions suggest they are being stubborn and behaving like petulant teenagers.