Christopher Harborne, a leading cryptocurrency, defence and aviation-fuel investor based in Thailand handed Nigel Farage’s Reform UK £9 million in cash on August 1
Reform UK has received the biggest single donation in history to a political party from a living person, official figures have revealed
Christopher Harborne, a leading cryptocurrency, defence and aviation-fuel investor handed Nigel Farage’s party £9 million in cash on August 1.
The former Brexit party donor’s support took Reform UK’s total donations to £10.5 million between July and the end of September.
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Mr Harborne, who lives in Thailand, previously donated £1m to the office of Boris Johnson after the former prime minister left Downing Street and accompanied him on a trip to Ukraine. In January, the Reform UK leader accepted £28,000 from him to attend Donald Trump ’s inauguration.
Reform UK’s total donations were the largest of any party during the period, followed by the Conservative Party which received just under £7 million. Labour received £2.5 million and donations totalling just over £2 million were given to the Liberal Democrats.
The largest single donation to a political party in the UK in history was the £10 million left to the Conservative Party by Lord Sainsbury in his will in 2022. The total party donations represented a significant increase on the same period last year and the previous quarter.
Between July and September 2024 parties collectively received a total of £10 million and just over £11 million between April and June this year. The Conservatives’ latest largest single donation was £1 million from Jeremy Elliott San, a game programmer and tech entrepreneur.
Labour’s biggest donor was the Unite union with £362,625, while the Liberal Democrats’ largest contributor was Neale A Powell-Cook with a donation of £50,000.
Commenting on the figures, Jackie Killeen, director of electoral administration and regulation at the Electoral Commission, said: “The UK political finance system has high levels of transparency, and we know that voters are interested in where parties get their money from.
“The UK Government’s proposed reforms to the political finance regime have the potential to improve the strength of donation controls and help ensure voters can have confidence in the political finance system.
“We will continue to work with the Government so that any changes are evidence based and workable in practice.”