Reform receives second £36m donation in two days as crypto investor matches record

Reform receives second £36m donation in two days as crypto investor matches record

Reform UK has received a second £36m donation in as many days, as cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne says he has matched a record-breaking donation announced late on Friday.

Harborne wrote in the Telegraph that his "competitive spirit" had inspired him to equal Ben Delo's donation - the largest ever given to a UK political party.

The Thailand-based entrepreneur said he expected "nothing personally" in return aside from "a party that is ready for government".

The £72m from these two donations is more than the total received by all UK political parties last year, which stood at just over £69m.

Reform leader Nigel Farage said Harborne and Delo's "generosity" meant the party would "now be able to fight and win the next general election on a level playing field".

Harborne has already donated millions to Reform and Farage, who is currently under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner over whether he should have declared a £5m cash gift from Harborne ahead of the 2024 election.

Farage has argued that he was under no obligation to register the "purely private" gift, as it was unrelated to his parliamentary or political activities.

The party is also facing scrutiny over its finances after a broadcast by Channel 4 News last week showed two senior Reform aides apparently suggesting a way around electoral law to secure foreign party donations.

The Metropolitan Police has said it is investigating, while the party denies any wrongdoing.

The force is also looking into donations given to the party by Fiona Cottrell, mother of longstanding Farage ally George Cottrell, as well as a company controlled by its deputy leader Richard Tice.

Harborne wrote on Saturday that he had "already accumulated enough wealth for the rest of my life", while Reform was a "start-up party" that lacked "the benefit of hundreds of years of patronage".

"A start-up party needs more money than can be provided by membership fees alone, to build and sustain itself and be ready for government," he said.

Harborne and Delo's donations mark the largest sums received by a UK political party since they had to begin declaring them in 2001.

Delo, who also announced his donation in a Telegraph op-ed, said he was giving the money away because he wanted a "fair fight and a level playing field".

Addressing the recent scrutiny of Reform's finances, he said: "My conclusion from Reform's recent troubles is that they should spend less time trying to raise funds to compete on equal terms and more time preparing for government."

Last year, he was given an unconditional pardon by US President Donald Trump over a breach of anti-money laundering laws at his crypto trading platform, BitMEX, to which he had pleaded guilty in 2022.

There are currently no restrictions on the amount of money UK-based donors can give to political parties.

However, the Labour government has introduced a £100,000 cap on donations from British citizens living overseas, and plans to introduce a similar one for those who have recently returned to the UK.

Labour said Reform and Farage still had "serious questions" to answer about their finances.

Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said Reform were "drowning" in "sleaze and scandal",.

She added: "It's time Farage and Reform came clean with the public, fully co-operated with the ongoing police investigations and prove they're not just in it for themselves."

After news of Delo donation emerged, Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart said Farage wanted to "bring Trump's America to our shores by buying his way into power".

She said: "Andy Burnham needs to introduce a cap on political donations. Our democracy depends on it."