openDemocracy understands that the Boris campaign is one of the largest and most lucrative contracts in Crosby’s current portfolio. It is no pro-bono operation. We have been told that the #ElectBoris and the Leave operations inside Crosby’s firm, CTF Partners, are virtually inseparable contracts, funded on a scale that would dwarf major clients inside major lobbying companies.

The operation and business of these campaigns are so secretive even inside CTF itself that only those working on the Boris/Leave account – estimated to have been in play for at least two years – know what it is actually doing.

And the question no one seems willing to answer is: who’s paying for all of this? We've now asked CTF four times. They haven't answered.

We know about some of the candidates’ backers. Last month openDemocracy revealed that both Johnson and Hunt have received substantial donations from a prominent climate change denier. But rules on donor transparency which apply to UK general elections don’t apply to internal party contests. Instead, gifts to MPs are published only in their register of interests – which means we may not have the full details on who has bankrolled the campaigns until after the contest is over. And, thanks to the many holes in our transparency laws, we may never know who footed the bill for the lavish Boris PR splurge. But we do know who some of the clients they've had: including big tobacco, fossil fuel firms and Australia's meat industry.

This matters – even more than who gets chosen for the top job. For the past two-and-a-half years, openDemocracy has been tracking the dark money that is fuelling Brexit, and is seeking to shape our politics. It’s taken us to some extraordinary places.

We now have a tantalising indication (which we can’t verify, because of a breathtaking political stitch-up), that the secretive backer(s) of Boris’s lavish PR operation may be the same, or linked to, the controversial £435,000 Brexit donation to the DUP. (If we’re wrong, we’d be very happy to put the record straight – answers on a postcard, please.)

The global picture

As we’ve traced the dark money seeking to influence politics in the UK and across Europe, the trail has time and again taken us to the US, where a growing alliance of extreme free-market libertarians and social conservatives wants to reshape the world in their image. Together, these networks seek to police people’s bodies, families and religion – and vehemently oppose any measures to tackle climate change. (See the excellent work of Claire Provost and colleagues mapping this.)

We’ve only scratched the surface. But when you start to look at this global picture, it’s less surprising that the miserable choice on offer in Britain today is between a candidate who’s bullish about a no-deal Brexit – pushed by free-marketeers who want to turn Britain into an “offshore, low-tax haven” – and another who is a social conservative who personally favours halving legal abortion limits. Oh, and both of them have repeatedly voted against measures to tackle climate change.

Nor is it surprising that they are both vowing their readiness for a no-deal Brexit, opening Britain up to a brutal trade deal with the US, where, as Trump let slip, “everything is on the table”, including the NHS. After all, the think tank which has probably done most to shape the ideas of Brexit supporters – and effectively wrote the controversial ‘Malthouse compromise’ on Brexit – has been funded by a right-wing US foundation to promote the privatisation of healthcare.

If you think independent, high-quality news outlets like openDemocracy should continue to demand answers about who’s really bankrolling politics in the UK and globally, please consider supporting our work today. Thank you.