BBC politics presenter Laura Kuenssberg faced criticism from some viewers after a tense exchange with Reform UK's Robert Jenrick over billionaire donations to the party. The interview, broadcast on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on September 13, came after it emerged that two billionaire backers had donated millions of pounds to Reform UK.
Question over billionaire backers
Kuenssberg pressed Jenrick on the party's positioning, saying: “You position yourselves as the party for ordinary working people. You and I have discussed that on many occasions before. But you’re being bankrolled by billionaires. How can you be the party of ordinary people when you’re being bankrolled by billionaires? I rather think if it was another political party, you would say it’s not healthy to have that all coming from the same [source].”
Jenrick responded: “These are two people who are patriotic Brits, they love this country and they’re worried that’s it’s a mess and is slipping away-“ before Kuenssberg interrupted: “One of them lives in Thailand!”
Viewers divided over exchange
Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne each donated £36 million to Nigel Farage's party. Although both billionaires were born in Sheffield, Harborne currently lives abroad.
Fans were split over the clash. One person wrote on X: “So living in Thailand means he somehow stops being British? What a completely pointless gotcha from Laura. You can question where someone lives, pays tax or why they donated – but residency doesn’t erase nationality!”
Another said: “There many patriotic Brits who live aboard for work reasons or for health reasons or for family reasons so that is a ridiculous attack line.” A third argued: “If I wanted to go and live in Australia would that make me less patriotic?”
Support for Kuenssberg
However, others sided with Kuenssberg. One wrote: “Billionaires buying countries. We can all see how well that worked out for America. Time to remove the money from politics worldwide.” Another echoed: “They love their country so much they do everything, and anything to avoid paying UK taxes.”
