Reform ‘s scandal-struck raffle probed by police

On 9 April, Reform UK announced the winner of their ‘Free Energy Bill’ prize draw. As we noted at the time, it seemed to be an excuse for Reform to make life a little easier for a family who appeared to have it quite easy already:

Since then, eagle-eyed investigators have noticed that this particular family have a history with Farage. Oh, and the police are looking into the raffle too. So all in all, things haven’t gone quite as well as they might have done.

Farage loyalists

Firstly, the prize-winning couple do seem to have a documented history of being around Farage. As political commentator Don McGowan noted (with help from the Yorkshire Lass account and Reform Party UK Exposed):

🗼WELL I NEVER🗼

Would you believe that Ray and June, who won the Reform UK energy bills prize, go back all the way to the Brexit Party with Farage?

Here they are with Farage, Widdecombe and Bull [a truly awful supernatural detective thriller].

What a coincidence [increasingly unlikely]

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The point McGowan and others are making is that this longstanding history with Farage and his various political vehicles suggests these winners were likely hand picked by the party. In the same post, McGowan showed the following images which picture Ray, June, and Farage at the same event:

McGowan also provided the following timeline:

<-> Ray and June Dibble are photographed at a Brexit Party rally in 2019 with Nigel Farage, Anne Widdecombe and David Bull.

<-> Ray and June nominate local councillor, Lee Moffitt as branch chair for Reform UK, Wigan.

<-> Ray and June win Nigel Farage’s energy bills competition.

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<-> Additional info — Farage and Jenrick turn up at Ray and June’s house with a cheque for a VERY SPECIFIC amount of £1,758.

It’s almost as though the entire thing was orchestrated from the beginning.

Look, we’re going to be completely fair here. It seems reasonable to think that the sort of person who enters a Reform giveaway is almost certainly going to be the sort of person who likes and follows Farage. As such, the fact that the couple have been hanging around Nigel for years isn’t a smoking gun, as Reform themselves have argued:

Back to being less nice, Reform have certainly given no reason to believe that they didn’t fix it.

And really, it didn’t take a genius to foresee that the draw would end up looking like a fix, even if they didn’t purposefully orchestrate one.

Of course your members would enter the competition, Nigel.

Of course people would call foul when one of them won.

Of course the inevitable outcry would overshadow any benefits from this little gimmick.

And as Mr Ethical noted, the way things have shaken out could in fact be criminal:

This is why political parties don’t usually do giveaways.

That and because they’re not daytime TV game shows.

It’s not surprising that Reform would ape light television, anyway, given that they’ve already stolen Jimmy Saville’s catchphrase.

GMP’s Reform investigation

As reported by the Telegraph, the police are now looking into the raffle. Greater Manchester Police have said:

We have received a report and are currently reviewing the matter.

It’s currently unclear what potential offences the police are looking into. Reform, meanwhile, have said they’re not worried, having previously solicited legal advice.

In all likelihood, nothing will come of the above, because UK electoral law is a joke. Clearly, however, political parties giving out cash prizes is not a sign of functioning democracy.

Featured image via Chatham House (Flickr)