Reform UK’s record £72m fundraising haul from two cryptocurrency billionaires could be clawed back under retrospective donation rules being pushed through parliament by the government.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner warned that new restrictions on political donations from Britons living abroad, or those who have recently returned to the UK, would be backdated to close what she described as loopholes in election funding.
The donations came from crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, who each handed Nigel Farage’s party £36m within 24 hours of one another.
The two gifts jointly represent the largest individual donations ever made to a British political party and together exceed the roughly £69m donated to all UK political parties combined last year.
Asked whether Reform could ultimately be forced to return the money, Rayner told Sky News it was a “really live question”, adding: “We’re saying that if you don’t pay taxes in, you don’t live here, you can’t buy your way into our democracy because you’re a billionaire.”
Rayner later confirmed to the BBC that new rules covering overseas donors and recent returnees “will be retrospective”, raising the prospect that Reform’s fundraising bonanza could face legal challenge.
The government’s Representation of the People Bill would cap donations from British citizens living overseas, as well as some recent returnees, at £100,000 a year, with provisions backdated to March.
Harborne has been based in Thailand for decades and holds Thai citizenship, while Delo recently returned to Britain after a period living in Hong Kong, meaning both donors’ eligibility may be scrutinised under the incoming legislation.
Reform said both men were British citizens entitled to donate and that all donations fully complied with Electoral Commission rules and existing UK law.
The party’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said Reform had “no reason” to return the money, insisting the donations were lawful under both current rules and forthcoming legislation, telling Sky News: “We’re very confident that these two donations are perfectly legal.”
The £72m injection gives Reform a substantial war chest as Farage seeks to convert strong polling numbers into the organisational infrastructure needed to contest hundreds of constituencies at the next general election.
The party announced plans to hire as many as 400 campaign managers in target seats and recruit staff to work on policy, describing itself as now on “election footing.”
Jenrick said the cash would allow Reform to become “battle ready” whether an election came within weeks or in two years, signalling the party intends to build a ground operation to rival the established parties.
Farage said he was “honoured and humbled” by the donations, arguing they would finally allow Reform to compete with the Conservatives and Labour on a “level playing field.”
Harborne, already one of Reform’s biggest financial backers having donated £9m to the party last year, said he expected “nothing” in return, stating: “No peerage, no policy change, just a party that is ready for government.”
Delo, who co-founded cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX and was pardoned by Donald Trump last year after previously pleading guilty in the US to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, said his £36m contribution was intended to give Reform a “fair fight.”
The sum was reportedly calculated at roughly £1m a month until the latest possible date of the next general election, with Reform deputy leader Richard Tice saying Delo had paid upfront “so that the Labour Party can’t legislate against it.”
The donations have reignited debate about whether domestic political donations should be capped, as there is currently no limit on how much a permissible UK-based donor can give a political party.
Labour MP Stella Creasy has proposed a £100,000 annual cap, while the Greens have backed a £500,000 limit, and Transparency International UK said the two Reform donations had made an “irrefutable case” for restrictions.
Farage is already facing a parliamentary standards investigation over a separate £5m gift from Harborne made before he entered parliament in 2024, while the Metropolitan Police is examining allegations concerning Reform’s finances, with both Farage and the party denying any wrongdoing.