Paul Nowak
Role at the time: General secretary of the Trades Union Congress, giving his keynote address to the TUC Congress in Brighton
Statement summary
In his keynote address to the TUC Congress, Nowak said the two donations showed that Reform UK and Nigel Farage were for sale, called them a crisis for democracy, and said the political system must not be captured by corporate interests.
“The evidence is clear: Reform UK is a party for sale. Nigel Farage is a politician for sale. And given half the chance, they’d sell our country down the river. Make no mistake, this is a crisis for our democracy. We cannot allow our political system to be captured by corporate interests.”
The full text of the keynote address TUC general secretary Paul Nowak gave to the TUC Congress in Brighton on September 14, 2026, as published by LabourList. The TUC also posted the speech on its own website.
Why we used this label
The reference point is Reform UK's acceptance of the two 36 million pound donations from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne in September 2026. Condemned: Nowak says the donations show that Reform UK and Farage are for sale and calls them a crisis for democracy, a direct criticism of the party taking the money. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional; it loses because his call for wider limits on political funding adds a remedy without qualifying his criticism of these donations.