Former Neighbours actress Holly Valance hosted a fundraising bash for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in a bid to broaden the party’s appeal to potential donors.
A number of prominent business people attended the event in West London last night which comes following Reform UK’s election success in July.
The gathering was aimed at broadening the right-wing party’s appeal and boosting its coffers after it won five seats at the general election two months ago.
Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage was seen arriving at the event along with the party’s chairman Zia Yusuf.
Political donor Arron Banks, founder of Pimlico Plumbers Charlie Mullins, the director of Restore Trust Zewditu Gebreyohanes and MPs Lee Anderson and Richard Tice were all also seen outside the fundraiser.
Mr Farage told Sky News earlier this week: ‘Reform is growing fast and rising in the polls but we need to raise real money to professionalise the party.
‘Wednesday night is the first step.’
The event was hosted by rightwing former singer and actress Holly Valance who is now married to billionaire property developer Nick Candy.
Ms Valance was previously credited for encouraging Farage to stand as an MP for Clacton after he initially announced he wouldn’t be running.
She said she had been ‘whispering in [Farage’s] ear for a long time, saying, ‘Come on, pull your finger out, give the people what they want’.’
There were also rumours Ms Valance herself was going to run as a candidate for Reform UK and before that, as a Tory candidate in the London mayoral elections.
In June it was reported that she had written Mr Farage a ‘substantial cheque’ to bolster Reform UK’s election campaign funds.
The pair were previously pictured schmoozing together at a London fundraiser Ms Valance hosted for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
That event was said to have raised around $3million for the Republican presidential candidate.
Asked why she was hosting Ms Valance gathering she told reporters at the time: ‘If America is doing well we are all doing well.’
The Reform UK fundraiser last night comes as Mr Farage embarked this week on a renewed drive to raise millions of pounds to ‘professionalise’ the party’s operations.
Reform has gained 50,000 new members since the former UKIP leader took over from Richard Tice.
Mr Farage has placed a particular focus on attracting younger voters through social media platforms.
His talk of emasculation and a failing state in particular seems to have resonated with the under-18 age group who interact with his videos on TikTok.
The Reform leader has 853,000 followers on the social media platform and his party has 227,8000 – compared to the Conservatives’ 73,600 followers.
In one video Farage sings along to Eminem’s song Without Me with the lyrics: ‘Guess who’s back, back again.’ He captioned the post: ‘Good morning, Rishi Sunak.
Mr Farage is looking to capitalise on support among younger voters at the 2029 general election when Reform believe they will be able to replace the Tories as the official opposition.
Speaking at a press conference in July, Farage said: ‘We completely and utterly dominated social media, whether it was X, whether it was Facebook, whether it was Instagram, whether it was TikTok.
‘We completely dominated that landscape in the most remarkable way, with a very, very small spend in comparison to the other parties.
‘I’ll tell you something, the enthusiasm for what we stand for, that is now growing rapidly among Gen Z, is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before with the Brexit Party or with UKIP.
‘I don’t think it has yet quite converted into votes. A lot of them are 17 and a lot of them haven’t voted and many said they weren’t registered but there is something remarkable happening there.’