Dig deep! Reform frontbench promotes JCBs after £200,000 donation from firm

Reform UK’s leading figures have repeatedly promoted a new pothole-fixing machine by the construction company JCB, while the party received £200,000 from the British digger maker, the Guardian can reveal. Several Reform politicians including Nigel Farage , Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick, Zia Yusuf and Richard Tice have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro machine. At a rally last year in Birmingham, Farage entered the stage on one of the repair vehicles and suggested it would be used in Reform-run councils when the party had taken control at local elections. Describing JCB as “one of the most incredible companies in the world” in March 2025, he said : “This machine can mend potholes at half the cost that currently is being charged by other commercial operators, and aren’t potholes just the perfect symbol of broken Britain? “So I thought I’d come in on a JCB , with a machine that actually works, and that county council should use, if they weren’t tied in, to five and 10-year contracts with inferior providers. But we’ll fix that, won’t we, when we control those county councils?” Reform UK figures promote JCB pothole-fixing machine After Farage lavished praise on the business, JCB gave a donation of £200,000 to Reform in November last year. The donation came after years of the family-owned company giving money to the Conservatives, with its chairman, Anthony Bamford , having sat as a Tory peer until 2024. …