A Cambridge-based technology entrepreneur has donated £500,000 to far-right anti-immigration party Restore Britain.
Simon Galbraith, who describes himself as a tentative philanthropist, sits on the board of several companies.
After co-founding Red Gate Software in 1999, he served as its CEO for more than two decades before passing the reins to current CEO Jakub Lamik in 2021. He was named non-executive chairman of the database management company in January 2022.
When US private equity firm Bregal Sagemount acquired a majority stake earlier this year, he moved to a non-executive director role, with US-based Frank Roe taking over as executive chair.
Galbraith has chosen to back the new political party of Rupert Lowe, former chairman of Southampton FC, who registered Restore Britain earlier this year after a public spat with Nigel Farage saw him leave Reform.
Lowe has the backing of Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk, who shares all the former’s posts on his social media platform X.
“I am delighted to announce that British entrepreneur Simon Galbraith has chosen to support Restore Britain, starting with two separate donations totalling £500,000 to our party – I would like to sincerely thank Simon on behalf of our party and our membership,” Lowe wrote on X.
“We have so much to do and the financial and practical support of all of our members is the bedrock of our political movement.”
He also shared a statement from Galbraith.
“In late April, through my company Cadehill, I donated £250k to Restore; I donated another £250k in August. I am a British taxpayer and this money came from the sale of a British business I co-founded,” it began, seemingly referencing donations made to Reform and Farage himself by Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.
“I believe that most British people sense Britain’s decline,” the statement continued. “There is a centralised, bloated and incompetent state which is increasingly undemocratic, British institutions are unfocused on what they should be for, and our democracy doesn’t represent the interests and opinions of many.
“I love my country. I’ve built my businesses here, raised my family here and made my life here.
“Financially it would make a great deal of sense for me to leave, as many people with my wealth have chosen to do, but I don’t want to. I want to live in Britain, and feel a responsibility to contribute to fixing it.
“That is why I’ve chosen to support Restore. Britain deserves a state that acts in the interests of the British people, institutions that serve their true purpose and a democracy that is representative.
“Things are worse than most people realise but the opportunity is much greater than everyone thinks too, if Restore win power, I think it will spark a British renaissance.”
Restore is a hardline anti-immigration party which has openly called for mass deportations; bans on burqas and niqabs; abolishment of the asylum system; and a referendum on the return of the death penalty.
It has also adopted populist policies such as abolishing inheritance tax and stamp duty; reducing alcohol duty in pubs; and lowering corporation tax.
Galbraith sits on the boards of Leeds-based Microneedle Solutions (MNS), which we featured last week; RoboK, a Cambridge-based AI-powered CCTV software platform for workplace safety; London-based baby gut health company BoobyBiome; and several others.
The Financial Times reported that he had previously made donations to the Liberal Democrats.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Galbraith is still serving as chairman of Red Gate Software.