Authorities threatened to close down Interior Architecture Landscape due to unpaid taxes. The design firm still managed to make a major donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. The firm said the donations complied with U.K. electoral law.
The right wing Reform UK party received donations of 200,000 British pounds last summer from an interior design firm that declared only meager cash reserves, and listed tax debts totalling more than its political contributions.
Corporate records show that the company, Interior Architecture Landscape Limited, was at risk of being shut down by the U.K.’s tax authority last year. The firm had recorded an unpaid tax debt of more than 218,000 pounds ($292,000).
The political donations by Interior Architecture Landscape were made in multiple tranches up to August 2025, according to U.K. Electoral Commission data.
Reporters were unable to identify any active staff, ongoing design projects, or place of business beyond a registered address at an accounting firm — raising questions over the scale and nature of Interior Architecture Landscape’s commercial operations.
John Simpson, the sole shareholder and director of Interior Architecture Landscape, said in an emailed response to questions that its donations to Reform UK were made “in compliance with UK electoral law.”
Originally set up as The Brexit Party in 2018, Reform UK and its leader, Nigel Farage, led national opinion polls throughout 2025. The party is expected to make significant gains in local council elections in May. Reform UK did not respond to a request for comment.
The donations to Reform UK came despite Interior Architecture Landscape’s sizable tax debt, as recorded in its most recent financial statements for 2023-2024. The statements, filed in April 2025, showed cash reserves of just over 22,000 pounds ($29,000).
The firm’s net assets fell from around 296,000 pounds ($397,000) in 2022 to around 100,000 pounds ($138,000) in 2024, according to year-on-year accounts.
In his emailed response to questions, Simpson indicated that the company’s fortunes have since improved.
“The company is currently engaged in construction and contract management activities with an aggregate contract value in excess of £15 million [$20 million], which has generated sufficient resources to enable the company to make political donations,” Simpson wrote.
He added that his company does “not publicly disclose client identities or specific properties.”
In January 2025, HM Revenue and Customs initiated winding-up proceedings against Interior Architecture Landscape. Such court proceedings are usually brought as a measure of last resort when a company fails to pay its debts. The design firm has twice been subject to strike-off petitions by Companies House in the past two years. All three proceedings have since been dismissed or discontinued.
Interior Architecture Landscape describes itself as “one of London’s leading luxury interior designers.” Its website includes stock photos alluding to projects it says it has worked on in affluent areas of London, including in Belgravia, Mayfair and Hampstead Heath.
“The use of representative or stock imagery on our website reflects this approach and is intended to protect client privacy while conveying the nature of our work,” Simpson wrote.
The British Institute of Interior Designers (BIID), the U.K.’s sole professional institute for interior designers, stated that the use of stock images is contrary to the professional standards expected of its members, according to a spokesperson.
“The BIID requires our members to abide by a strict Code of Conduct that reflects professionalism and integrity, and as such BIID members only use photography of their own projects on their websites,” they said.
The BIID confirmed that neither Simpson nor Interior Architecture Landscape are members.
The Architects Registration Board, which regulates architects in the U.K., told OCCRP that “there are no architects on the Architects Register associated with Interior Architecture Landscape Ltd.”
Simpson said the company “does not present itself as an architectural practice regulated by the Architects Registration Board."
Aside from Interior Architecture Landscape, Simpson is a shareholder, director or representative of more than a dozen other companies, corporate records show. There is no evidence these businesses are linked to Reform UK donations.
They include a UAE-registered firm called Orico General Trading LLC, which agreed in 2013 to supply goods and services worth about $186 million as part of a major project to modernise Iran’s fibre optic network, according to arbitration records from the International Chamber of Commerce.
Another company owned by Simpson, Haremere Farms Limited, owns a 400-year-old Jacobean mansion in southern England worth up to 6-million pounds ($8 million).
Simpson did not respond to questions about Haremere Farms, and declined to comment on Orico citing “risks associated with threats from the oppressive Iranian regime.”
