Farage’s £5m donor has huge stake in company with major Welsh presence
Martin Shipton
Questions have been raised after it emerged Nigel Farage’s controversial £5m donor has a huge financial stake in a defence company with a major Welsh presence.
Christopher Harborne, the Thailand-based billionaire and Reform UK’s biggest financial backer, has provided around two-thirds of the party’s funding. He also gave Farage a separate £5m gift, which is being investigated by the parliamentary standards watchdog.
Harborne has a stake of around 15% in QinetiQ, reportedly worth about £400m, making him the arms company’s largest shareholder.
QinetiQ operates the Ministry of Defence’s Aberporth facility in Ceredigion, where drones and other unmanned aerial systems are tested within a danger area covering around 6,500 sq km of Cardigan Bay. It also operates MOD Pendine in Carmarthenshire.
The revelations have sparked fresh concerns among anti-war campaigners over the growing influence of big money, corporate power and the arms industry lobby on politics.
Harborne has cultivated relationships with senior politicians, donating £1m to Boris Johnson and accompanying him on a visit to Ukraine, as well as funding Farage’s trip to Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025.
Adam Johannes, of Cardiff Stop the War Coalition, said: “A recent investigation by the Guardian into Britain’s biggest political donor has exposed a remarkable tangle of money, politicians and the arms trade. But the real story is bigger than one billionaire or one political party. It is the increasingly cosy relationship between private wealth, political influence and an arms industry forever demanding more public money.
“Harborne’s huge stake in QinetiQ, a company with a major military presence in Wales, makes the issue particularly awkward at a time when the Welsh Government is pursuing a major expansion of the arms industry. Who exactly stands to profit?”
The issue has also become a focus for West Wales campaigners. Marj Hawkins, Sue Conlan and Sandra Rowland, who attend local residents’ protests, said their concerns began with the Aberporth testing centre.
“As residents of West Wales we became concerned about the drone testing centre at Aberporth MOD when we realised the links it has with enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” they said.
“There are two companies at Aberporth – QinetiQ and TEKEVER. QinetiQ test and provide training support services for missiles and drones. The Elbit 900 and Hermes 450 drones have made multiple trial flights from West Wales Airport. These are drones that have been used in Israel.”
Licences
The campaigners also say QinetiQ has been issued “at least nine licences” by the UK Government to sell weapons technology to Israel. They describe TEKEVER, which owns West Wales Airport, as “Europe’s biggest AI-driven drone arms company” and say it has worked with Leonardo, which supplies weapons and aircraft to Israel.
They say QinetiQ and TEKEVER are working with taxpayers’ support to develop Aberporth into a “UAV Centre of Excellence”.
“We do not want our public money spent in this way,” they said. “Our taxes should be used to benefit the wider community such as housing, education and the NHS, not to develop drones that can be used to support a genocide.”
The women also raise concerns about the political consequences of expanding the arms industry in Wales.
“In addition to its contracts with Israel, the profits that QinetiQ generates are being used to undermine democracy in the UK and fuel racism. Its biggest shareholder, Christopher Harborne, has donated over £22m to Reform UK and given £5m to Nigel Farage personally,” they said.
The campaigners also question whether the expanding military industry is delivering the promised economic benefits to local communities.
“It is hard to know how many local people are employed by QinetiQ and TEKEVER but the promises made when West Wales Airport was expanded have not led to any noticeable benefit locally,” they said. “QinetiQ has made some redundancies in the past year. There have been pay freezes in the past and unions were not recognised after 2012.”
Public meetings
They say opposition to the military presence has been growing, with public meetings in Cardigan and Aberporth organised by West Wales Against Arms and monthly vigils highlighting the links to Gaza: “The next vigil is due to take place outside West Wales Airport on Friday, September 4, at 1pm,” they added.
The controversy comes as anti-war protesters prepare to demonstrate against the Defence Security Resilience Cymru summit at the ICC Wales in Newport on Thursday, September 3 at 8am. They have dubbed the event “the Welsh Government arms fair”.
Organisers say more than 2,000 delegates and 60 exhibitors will attend, connecting Welsh businesses with defence supply chains. General Dynamics Land Systems is the headline sponsor and the Welsh Government is a partner. QinetiQ is understood to have a presence.
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Any one or any company that is supplying arms to an evil zionist regime, their idf goons and marauding settlers need to be dumped in to the virtual sewer of shame along with the zionists who have banished bani israel back to the days when they wandered in circles for 40 years in the wilderness.