Vodafone Three sponsors Reform UK conference after party threatened to jail its CEO

VodafoneThree is hosting a fringe event at Reform UK’s national conference in Birmingham this week, even though the party’s home affairs spokesman threatened last month to imprison the company’s chief executive over SIM cards given to a refugee charity.

The conference opened today (3 September) with a new “business day” at the NEC, as Reform tries to present itself as a serious governing force and attract corporate support. VodafoneThree is putting on a panel, alongside think tank More in Common, on unlocking investment in Britain’s digital infrastructure. Speakers include Reform’s Ben Bradley and London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, as well as Vodafone’s head of government affairs and the chief executive of Mobile UK.

The appearance sits uneasily with Reform’s recent attack on the company. In mid-August, Zia Yusuf wrote to Vodafone Group CEO Margherita Della Valle after Care4Calais’s annual report showed it had distributed 2,221 Vodafone SIM cards (some reports said around 2,500), each with six months of free data, calls and texts. Yusuf said the cards helped “unvetted, military-age men” enter Britain and that customers would be “shocked” their provider was “actively endangering British women and girls.”

He demanded Vodafone cancel the cards, cut ties with Care4Calais, and hand over tracking data to British and French authorities. Under a proposed “Polanski Law,” a Reform government would make assisting or encouraging illegal entry a strict-liability offence. Yusuf said directors would be held “personally and criminally liable” and “liable to go to prison.” He also threatened a review of public contracts and exclusion from defence, national security and emergency-services procurement.

Vodafone rejected the demand. A spokesperson said the Charities Connected programme supplies SIMs only to registered UK charities, against strict criteria, for distribution to “vulnerable people in the UK.” Charity Commission-regulated groups decide who receives them. “All calls, texts and data are for UK use only,” the company added, pushing back on claims the cards were used to organise Channel crossings from France. Care4Calais has said most of the cards went to people already in the UK, including at the Wethersfield site in Essex.

Yusuf doubled down after Vodafone stood by the scheme, later warning that a Reform Home Secretary could revoke visas for foreign nationals on the Vodafone Group board. The company still went ahead with the conference partnership, which sources said had been agreed before the public row. Deliveroo, another firm Yusuf has targeted over alleged illegal working, is also sending representatives.

The episode captures Reform’s two-track approach: hard rhetoric on immigration and companies it accuses of enabling it, while courting the same corporate world for money, credibility and policy influence. Other firms at the event include EE, Google, Heathrow, JCB and TikTok. Reform has dropped last year’s crypto sponsors after controversy over a large donation to Nigel Farage.

Neither side has said the conference appearance changes the underlying dispute. Vodafone has not cancelled the charity programme. Reform has not withdrawn the prison threat. For now, the two are in the same hall talking about fibre networks and AI readiness.