Reform donor Christopher Harborne: Richest British-born billionaire who lives in Thailand, keeps his private life under wraps and has given party another £36million

Billionaire crypto businessman Christopher Harborne is another key supporter of Reform UK and is said to fiercely guard his privacy.

Reclusive Cambridge educated Harborne, who was born in Yorkshire to an affluent family, is estimated to be the richest British-born billionaire on this year's Sunday Times rich list where he featured for the first time.

Like fellow Reform major donor Ben Delo, he has spent several decades living overseas, in his case in Thailand where he owns a wellness retreat.

He does not reveal details of his private life – it is even unknown whether he is married or has children - and he keeps away from social media.

But despite apparently wanting to keep out of the spotlight, he donated £9m, a then-record donation from a living source to a British political party, to Reform last December.

In total the cryptocurrency investor and aviation entrepreneur and fanatic donated £12m to Reform in 2025, making him the party's largest single donor.

Mr Harborne, 63, who goes by the Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit, has also been at the centre of an ongoing storm over an undeclared £5 million donation to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

The donation, which was given to Mr Farage in April 2024 before he was elected as an MP, is currently being investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over whether it should have been officially declared.

Mr Farage has insisted the £5m donation was a personal gift for security and has previously defended the party against accusations that Mr Harborne's gifts must mean he seeks undue influence over Reform.

He says that Mr Harborne wants 'absolutely nothing' back in return but 'just happens to think that we've not made the most of Brexit, that we're not getting into the 21st Century technologies'.

In a recent interview with the Telegraph, Mr Farage said that 'Christopher is an ardent supporter who is deeply concerned for my safety'.

Mr Harborne has previously donated to the Conservative Party, including a sum of £1m to former PM Boris Johnson's company after he left office, and to the Brexit Party.

The aviation enthusiast who once narrowly escaped death - as Mr Farage did himself in a 2010 plane crash - when he crashed his light aircraft into a couple's home in Hampshire in 2008, was educated at one of the UK's most famous public schools, Westminster, before going on to Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied engineering.

Although he has revealed little about his life or motivations in donating such vast sums to political parties, it is known he worked for the management consultancy McKinsey as a consultant and corporations including PepsiCo before basing himself in the Far East.

He initially made his money in companies that traded in private planes and jet fuel and became a naturalised Thai citizen in 2011, requiring him to adopt his Thai name.

Like Delo, it was his involvement in cryptocurrency which saw him amass a vast personal fortune, first as a buyer of tokens and then as an investor in crypto mining.

He now owns 12% of stablecoin giant Tether, making him the largest individual shareholder in the El Salvador based firm.

Tether runs USDT - the world's biggest stablecoin - which is a form of crypto backed up by hard currency, and serves as a conduit between riskier, volatile cryptocurrencies and the conventional finance system.

Earlier this year, crypto proponent Mr Farage told LBC: 'Stablecoins, crypto, this world is enormous, and I've been urging for years that London should embrace it. We should become a global trading centre for this stuff.