‘Greedy and ruthless’ businessman fined over a man’s death among Reform UK’s latest donors

In 2006, “greedy and ruthless businessman” George Ruttle was fined over a man’s death and, in 2022, his company was fined after putting workers at risk of a potentially fatal fall.

Reform UK has received £20,000 from Ruttle Plant Holdings Limited, a company owned by a businessman who has been fined over a man’s death, recently released data reveals.

The data, published by political finance regulator the Electoral Commission earlier this month, shows that Ruttle Plant Holdings donated to Reform twice in the first six months of this year, sending £10,000 in the party’s direction on 13 January and again on 23 April.

This company – which owns Ruttle Plant Hire, a machinery rental firm – is ultimately owned by George Ruttle.

In 2006, a judge at Preston Crown Court described Ruttle as “a greedy and ruthless businessman”, after he and his (since dissolved) company, Ruttle Contracting, were found guilty of breaching health and safety regulations, following the death of a worker. 

According to a BBC report at the time, Shaun Riley, 31, tragically died after the dumper truck he was driving overturned at a farm near Chorley. 

The judge who ruled on the case said that “no thought was given to health and safety regulations”, adding: “I regard Mr George Ruttle as a greedy and ruthless businessman, with no moral scruples.”

Ruttle was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £103,500 costs.

More recently, in 2022, Ruttle Plant (Birmingham) Limited – which is now dissolved but was owned by George Ruttle, via Ruttle Plant Holdings – was fined more than £66,000 after leaving workers at risk of a potentially fatal 30 foot fall. 

Not only did the firm’s employees, who were left unsupervised, have to step out onto a roof with no edge protection, but they were also not provided with the minimum required welfare facilities.

Christine McGlynn, an inspector from workplace health and safety regulator HSE, explained: “Had a worker fallen off the roof edge, it could have been fatal.” 

HOPE not hate contacted Ruttle Plant Hire (a firm owned by George Ruttle, via Ruttle Plant Holdings) for comment from the company and its owner. They did not respond.

Reform’s other eyebrow-raising donors

Ruttle Plant Holdings isn’t the only eyebrow-raising Reform donor revealed in the new data.

The Donald Trump-supporting property developer Nick Candy has been particularly generous to the party. Back in December, Candy became Reform’s treasurer, pledging to raise “tens of millions” for the party.

While under Candy’s watch Reform has raised less cash than Labour and the Tories, the party did manage to secure £500,000 from… Candy himself.

In addition to Candy’s largesse, in June the party received £100,000 from Greybull Capital – a controversial investment firm which has extracted money from a number of struggling firms. Most notably, Greybull oversaw the collapse of British Steel, Britain’s second largest steelworks, into liquidation in 2019, after buying it for just £1 in 2016 and charging £20 million a year in fees and interest. 

When British Steel, which was subsequently taken over by the Chinese company Jingye, came into difficulties again earlier this year, Reform was keen to present itself as the defender of Britain’s steel production. Not that that’s to stop it taking Greybull’s cash. 

On 26 June, Nigel Farage’s party also accepted a £50,000 donation from R20 Advisory Limited. This loss-making firm – which has no website, no phone number, and was incorporated in 2002 by the property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz – is ultimately owned by Dunain Holdings Limited, an entity based, very patriotically, in the notorious tax haven of the British Virgin Islands. 

Democracy for Sale – a blog by the investigative journalist Peter Geoghegan – pointed out that R20 Advisory is also in breach of the law as it has failed to file its most recent accounts, an offence under the Companies Act. 

HOPE not hate contacted Greybull Capital and Robert Tchenguiz (via Asite, of which he is a director) for comment, but received no response.

Given all this, the question has to be asked: does Reform actually care who it’s accepting donations from?