Nigel Farage acknowledges Reform’s £72m donations may fall foul of law change

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Nigel Farage has acknowledged Reform UK may fall foul of the British government’s moves to clamp down on foreign donors, after his party received £72m (€84.1m) from two crypto billionaires over the weekend.

However, the Reform UK leader criticised the move to retrospectively apply a new law to the twin £36m gifts from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, which were announced on Saturday.

Reform has insisted the donations are in line both with current rules and planned restrictions on money from overseas donors.

The changes will restrict donations from expats to £100,000 which would also apply for the first year after they return to the UK – changes which would be backdated to March 25 this year.

Mr Delo has been based in Hong Kong, but said in April he would return to the UK to avoid restrictions on overseas donors and Mr Harborne was based in Thailand, but in June he was reported to have registered to vote in Hampshire.

Mr Farage told the BBC on Monday he believed the two donations were “compliant” with the law as it stands, but suggested they would not be acceptable as a result of a law change in the Representation of the People Bill.

“Both these donations are 100pc compliant with the law today, of that there is no question whatsoever,” Mr Farage told the BBC.

He was then asked whether Mr Delo and Mr Harborne were UK residents as of March 25, as this would have an impact on their donations.

Mr Farage replied: “I’m not going to go into their particular details. All I’m going to say is, with the law of the land as it stands, they are both compliant.

“Now, there is talk and Angela Rayner was talking about this yesterday, there is talk of them retrospectively declaring donations illegally.

“Well, that simply cannot be.”

Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice earlier on Monday told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme both donors had “complied with the rules and regulations, both existing and proposed and will continue to do so”, a position which appeared different from that set out by Mr Farage.

Mr Tice said the donations would help to “level the playing field” of donations received by other political parties and claimed Mr Delo and Mr Harborne would have “absolutely zero” influence on Reform’s policy platform.

He compared the situation to Labour’s funding from trade unions who “make demands about employment rights regulations, public sector pay and they get those demands satisfied”.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, has suggested donations from trade unions should be exempt from any cap, saying they were “not the same as two crypto millionaires waking up and giving £72m”.

Paul Nowak, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary, similarly told the TUC congress on Monday there was no similarity “between care workers chipping in a few quid a year through their union and a party bought and paid for by billionaires”.

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