Property magnate Nick Candy joins Reform UK in latest Tory defection

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Property magnate Nick Candy has left the Conservative party to become the treasurer of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, the latest high-profile defection to the rightwing populist party as it rises in opinion polls.

Candy, who has given more than £300,000 to the Tories, said he would donate a “seven-figure number” to Reform, as he promised to raise “tens of millions” for the insurgent party.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t a hundred per cent believe [Farage] was going to be the next prime minister,” he said on Tuesday.

His move follows recent defections including Tim Montgomerie, the widely-followed founder of the Conservative Home news site, and Andrea Jenkyns, former Tory MP. Jenkyns will also stand as Reform’s candidate to be mayor of Lincolnshire.

A poll last week from Find Out Now said 24 per cent of the public supported Farage’s party, overtaking the 23 per cent who supported the governing Labour party, and 26 per cent who backed the Tories.

Other recent surveys conducted by JL Partners and More in Common showed that Labour still had a significant lead on Reform UK.

Candy, 51, is married to actress and singer Holly Valance, who is a prominent supporter of Reform UK. He promised to raise “the most ever done in the UK”, saying “we’ve had millions already this morning”.

Reports last week suggested that Elon Musk was preparing to give a substantial donation to Reform UK that could be as high as $100mn, something the billionaire Trump adviser has since denied.

Musk commented on Candy’s defection on Tuesday, calling it “interesting”. He has previously endorsed comments on social media site X predicting that Farage would be the UK’s next prime minister.

Farage said on Tuesday that “we don’t know anything about Elon Musk other than he’s supportive of our position”, though he added: “If people offer us money legally, we will take it.”

The populist party now has more than 100,000 members, compared with Labour which has about 370,000.

Reform UK won five seats at the election in July, all of which it took from the Tories. It came second in 98 seats, 89 of which were won by Labour.

Farage said last month that he believed more future votes “will come from Labour from this position, than will come from the Conservatives”, adding that there was a “realigning of how voters view the old left-right spectrum”.

Farage said he was determined to mould his party in the style of the Liberal Democrats under former leader Paddy Ashdown, by doggedly pursuing district and county council seats in order to build local momentum in target regions of the UK.