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Reform UK’s crypto billionaire donor Ben Delo financed a failed libel case brought by two writers who privately exchanged pro-Hitler messages and agreed between themselves that they should study Mein Kampf, Byline Times can reveal. Yet they lost their case against the defendant, Luke Turner, a Jewish artist who had publicly complained that the two writers had pursued him in a campaign of antisemitic bullying.
The pair backed by Delo, who is now Reform UK’s second largest donor, contributed anonymously to a blog run by the man behind a neo-Nazi social media account whose posts celebrated the Holocaust and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories – a man they knew personally. Their private exchanges included discussions of such theories.
The claim was run by Mark Lewis of Patron Law, an honorary patron of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA).
Nina Power and Daniel Miller told each other they each kept a copy of Hitler’s manifesto. “I keep a copy in my study of course,” Miller wrote. “Well I have one too,” Power replied. “I think maybe it is necessary.” Minutes earlier she had been reading a conspiracy tract alleging a “Judeo-Masonic Plan to Conquer the World”; minutes later she asked what “the real deal” was with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion – a notorious antisemitic forgery and hoax first published in Russia in 1903 that falsely claims to reveal a secret Jewish plan for global domination.
The Financial Times reported this week that cryptobillionaire Ben Delo, Reform UK’s second-largest donor, lent Power more than £300,000, secured against her London home, to help pay for the case. Byline Times can now reveal what that case involved.
The findings are based on court documents, WhatsApp messages disclosed in evidence, legal correspondence and Land Registry records seen by Byline Times, including an official decision of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
The allegations, and the messages underlying them, were set out in public court documents in June 2023. Delo registered his charge over Power’s flat on 20 September 2023 – 13 days before the trial opened.
In a statement to the legal newsletter Per Incuriam, Delo’s solicitors acknowledged the loan and confirmed that he knew of Turner’s allegations against Power and Miller, but said the cryptobillionaire gave them “no credence whatsoever”. A person close to him told the Financial Times he does not believe either Power or Miller is antisemitic.
In a judgment handed down in November 2023, Mrs Justice Collins Rice dismissed their libel claim and found their conduct towards Turner “could, on an objective basis, fairly be described as bullying” and “certainly aggressive, in register, language and imagery”. They were ordered to pay 80% of his costs and were declared bankrupt.
Turner has still not been paid. Despite his court victory, Delo’s loan gives him a prior claim on money recovered from Power’s flat, ahead of Turner’s claim for legal costs. The Financial Times reported that Delo enforced his security shortly before Power’s bankruptcy and now receives monthly rent from her as a means of recovering the debt.
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Turner’s ordeal began before he had any direct dealings with Daniel Miller or Nina Power. A high-profile art project he was involved with alongside Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf and artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö, launched on 20 January 2017 (Inauguration Day for President Donald Trump), invited passers-by in New York to say “He Will Not Divide Us” into a camera.
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