Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accused the far-left HOPE Not Hate (HnH) group of breaching charity rules by allegedly engaging in party politics in the upcoming special by-election in Makerfield next month.
HOPE Not Hate, which describes itself as the “UK’s leading campaign group against the far right”, has deeply involved itself in the June 18th election, which was sparked this month following the resignation of anti-Breitbart activist turned MP Josh Simons from his post in a bid to clear way for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to win a seat in Parliament and thus enable him to launch a leadership challenge against faltering Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The involvement of the far-left group in the race began as is typical of the cancel culture operation, with attempts to tarnish the right-wing candidate in the race, this time local plumber and Army reservist Robert Kenyon for Reform UK, by dredging up old social media posts and pushing them to any media outlet willing to report the supposedly controversial content.
While this is standard fare for the so-called anti-fascist organisation, party boss Nigel Farage wrote to the Charity Commission on Wednesday over alleged further involvement of HnH in the race, including claims that the group is actively leafletting in Makerfield on behalf of Labour and against Reform UK.
“The leaflet allegedly endorses Andy Burnham, Labour’s candidate, and attempts to influence voters’ decisions. The tone and content of the leaflet is clearly directed towards persuading the reader to vote for a particular candidate, and the text in the footer, ‘To join the local fightback against Reform, please scan the QR code’, is party political,” Mr Farage wrote.
The Reform chief went on to raise a longstanding question surrounding HOPE not Hate, that it claims to be two separate groups, one which has charitable status and the other which serves as a campaign group. Although legally separate, opponents have long raised doubts over whether they are actually independent of one another, particularly given the fact that HOPE Unlimited Charitable Trust (HUCT) received government grants from the previous “Conservative” government between 2019 and 2020.
Mr Farage added, “Hope Not Hate Ltd. continues to be funded almost entirely by grants from HUCT. In their 2024 annual report they note a grant of £787,858°, against a total charitable expenditure from the charity of £893,701 for the period. The charity made no other grants that year, and the remaining charitable expenditure is only related to the operational costs of the charity.”
The Charity Commission concluded a compliance case into the matter earlier this year without taking any action against HnH following years of complaints over whether it was “connected to and/or endorsed by the charity”. However, although the regulator found that the trustees have now made the two groups distinct, it still expressed criticism over “how long it took the charity to take these steps.”
The Head of Compliance Visits and Inspections at the Charity Commission, Joshua Farbridge, said in January that while charities have a right to engage in politics to advance their philanthropic aims, they must ensure that their activities are not “party political”.
“We have been critical of the time it has taken for legitimate concerns to have been addressed by the charity but it has since made positive steps forward. We expect this to be maintained and we will monitor the charity’s continued progress,” he said at the time.
Mr Farage claimed that the alleged campaigning in Makerfield demonstrated that the charity’s trustees are “failing to ensure that grants made by the organisation are only used for charitable purposes.”
He said that the charity’s apparent funding of HOPE Not Hate’s “political activities represents a clear conflict of interest on the part of the trustees, and a clear breach of the Charity Commission’s regulations.”
The Reform boss went on to note that many of the trustees and directors of HOPE Not Hate are either current or former Labour Party politicians. The groups have long been tied to the upper echelons of the governing leftist party, with current Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy having previously campaigned for HnH.
Despite its left-wing bent, the group was also promoted heavily by the former Tory government, which frequently relied on Hope Not Hate to brief it on the threat it claims to exist from right-wing extremism in Britain, despite security officials frequently noting that the disproportionate focus on such extremists has often distracted from the far more significant issue of Islamic jihadis.
In response to the letter from Mr Farage, HOPE Not Hate CEO Nick Lowles said: “Reform UK’s complaint is a transparent attempt to distract from legitimate scrutiny of its candidate in Makerfield, following an investigation published by HOPE not hate last week, which revealed misogynistic and degrading comments he made about women. Reform may not like being scrutinised, but voters deserve to know who is asking for their support.
“It’s a shame that Nigel Farage has not put as much effort into vetting his own candidates as he has done making spurious complaints to the charity commission. Farage can complain all he want, but [HOPE Not Hate] will not shy away from campaigning in Makerfield.”