Reform UK Maga-style think tank secures over £1 million in funding pledges

Olivia Barber 

Yesterday

Left Foot Forward

The think tank was set up by mining tycoons David Lilley and Mark Thompson

A MAGA-style think tank with ties to Reform UK has already secured £1 million in pledged donations and started hiring staff, according to the Financial Times.

The think tank has also set up an office in Millbank Tower, Westminster.

The group, named Resolute 1850, is seeking donations from “US donors from MAGA, Tech, Religious conservatives,” and will be used to help Reform strengthen its policy platform.

According to records on Companies House, Resolute 1850 has three directors: Jonathan Brown, Reform UK’s former chief operating officer, former Tory donor David Lilley and Mark Thompson, an investor in metals and fossil fuels.

Lilley, who is a metals trader, donated over £250,000 to Reform UK last year.

Brown, chief executive of the group, told the FT that the think tank plans to work with multiple clients. “We are not simply a Reform think-tank,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white so long as it catches mice.”

According to Politics Home, Resolute 1850 may be launched as early as this spring.

A leaked presentation shared with the FT outlines the group’s research focuses, which include helping right-wing parties win in Parliament and working to “roll back the quangocracy and DEI agenda”.

The think tank also aims to “unlock the potential of private enterprise and roll back the state,” while promoting “realistic climate policy” and “realistic and restrained immigration policy”.


Union slams Nigel Farage for holding its ‘Save Our Steel’ posters in mayoral election photo op


Olivia Barber 

9 April, 2025 

Left Foot Forward

‘Nigel Farage does not speak for Community. Farage is holding old posters and does not represent steelworker interests.’

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Community Union has called Nigel Farage out for posing with union posters and claiming he will protect British steelworkers during a visit to Scunthorpe steel works yesterday.

In a photo stunt ahead of the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral election on 1 May, Farage shared a photo of him with Reform UK’s mayoral candidate Andrea Jenkyns and deputy leader of Reform, Richard Tice, claiming his party will nationalise British Steel.

Community Union swiftly rebuked Farage’s claims: “Nigel Farage does not speak for Community. @UKLabour is working with unions and workers to secure the best outcome for Scunthorpe. Farage is holding old posters and does not represent steelworker interests.”

A Community spokesperson told Left Foot Forward that the leaflets Farage, Tice and Jenkyns were holding in the photo opp were at least five or six years old.

The ‘Save Our Steel’ poster, they noted, was from before the pandemic, while current campaign materials now feature the message: ‘Britain, we need our steel.’

They also said the union had no involvement in the visit and that it doesn’t align itself with Farage.

In an interview on BBC Breakfast this morning, Farage claimed “Unless within three days that Scunthorpe plant is nationalised those blast furnaces will go”.

Farage repeated his claim that net zero targets are causing de-industrialisation, in the form of cement and aluminium plants closing, and now the potential loss of Scunthorpe steelworks.

Reform UK’s election campaign stunt comes as the Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the government is in discussions with unions about the future of British Steel and is considering nationalising the steel company.

In March, British Steel’s Chinese owner Jingye announced plans to consult on shutting down the site’s two blast furnaces in June, or at a later date if an agreement with the government can be reached.

Scunthorpe is home to the UK’s last remaining blast furnace steelworks, and employs 2,700 workers directly and more through supply chains across the country.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward