Funding for populist-right ‘media-political complex’ exceeded £170m in five years, research finds

Handful of billionaires gave huge sums in particular to media organisations that boosted rightwing politicians, says Liam Byrne MP

More than £170m was given to MPs, political parties, media organisations and thinktanks aligned with the UK’s populist right over the past five years, new research from the Labour MP Liam Byrne has found.

Byrne, a former cabinet minister who chairs parliament’s business committee, said he had identified a “media-political complex” funded largely by a handful of billionaires.