Down and Out in Dubai and Davos

It has been a dreary January in Britain – not that Nigel Farage would have noticed, given he’s spent most of it jetting to all corners of the globe.

In fact, we crunched the numbers and found that Farage’s donors have splashed out £151,000 flying the Reform leader across the world since his election to Parliament, often in support of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Farage was in another far-flung destination this week, barely touching down from Davos before gallivanting to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

He wasn’t there for the sun, but rather the cash – holding meetings with rich “expats”, urging them to donate to his political party, and hosting fawning GB News interviews with UAE ministers.

Fortunately, DeSmog has been on the tail of this trend for the past few weeks – tracking the ways in which Reform is cosying up to this authoritarian petrostate.

In fact, we released a new story this week, revealing how new Reform recruit Nadhim Zahawi is working for an “ultra-luxury” Dubai property company. And, as our friends at the New World reported, Zahawi isn’t the only member of Farage’s merry band with extensive real estate interests.

Speaking of Tory defectors, there has been plenty of speculation this week about the future of the Conservative Party and whether it should adopt more moderate policies, now that some of its most radical MPs have fled to Farage’s camp.

However, Kemi Badenoch isn’t budging, and instead seems intent on chasing Reform down a right-wing rabbit hole. This is epitomised by her party’s approach to net zero, with her shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho taking an increasingly aggressive, anti-science approach.

As reported by Adam Barnett this week, Coutinho has already backed three anti-net zero reports this year – all of which have been debunked by experts, and all of which were authored by groups or individuals with ties to the oil industry.

It seems the Tories are running an evidence-free operation, regardless of the political consequences.

Sam Bright is DeSmog’s co-UK deputy editor