Crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne both announced mammoth donations of £36million each to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party over the weekend
Calls to slam the door on mega-donations will be heard in Parliament on Monday after Reform trousered a record £72million from two crypto billionaires.
Nigel Farage’s party was handed £36million each from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne over the weekend in a move that has fired up growing pressure to curb political donations.
The record-breaking gifts cast a new light over the Reform UK’s leaders’ attempts to lobby the Bank of England last year against plans for a state-run alternative to crypto.
It also dramatically shifts focus after a nightmare week for Reform, which saw Scotland Yard launch a criminal investigation into allegations it broke foreign funding laws exposed in an undercover sting.
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said voters would smell a rat. He said: “The public will say what does he want for his £36million?”
The news has electrified the debate over the influence of big money in British politics.
The Representation of the People Bill, which heads to the Lords on Monday, includes plans for a £100,000 cap on donations from Brits living overseas. The proposals would apply for the remainder of the calendar year and the following calendar year after they return.
Communities Secretary Angela Rayner signalled Reform could be forced to hand back the cash if it falls foul of new rules. Both men are British but have spent time abroad – with Mr Delo previously living in Hong Kong and Mr Harborne based in Thailand.
Asked about the donations, Ms Rayner told Sky News: “We need to have secure elections that are for the people, and that you can’t buy your way into our democracy. And that’s why the Rycroft Review was set up, and we’ve already taken action against overseas donations, which will be backdated for when Rycroft published [March 25].”
But Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said: “These two donations are entirely in line with the law as it is and, as far as we know, the law as it’s going to be in the future.”
Both men have already donated millions of pounds to Reform. Mr Harborne also gave £5m to Mr Farage ahead of the 2024 election, which is subject to a probe by the parliamentary standards commissioner as Mr Farage failed to declare it. He insists no rules have been broken and claims it was a personal gift.
Mr Farage has given shifting explanations, originally saying it was for his personal security and then later claiming it was a reward for campaigning for Brexit. In a bad-tempered media round earlier this year, he said it was no one’s business what he spent the money on, and said he could splash it on Ferraris or betting on horse racing if he wanted to.
Reform is facing a separate police investigation in the wake of an undercover report by Channel 4 and Verbatim Investigations, which appeared to show senior figures discussing ways to evade the law to secure foreign donations worth £500,000.
The inquiry is also looking into donations given to the party by Fiona Cottrell, mother of George Cottrell – a Farage ally known as Posh George. Reform denies wrongdoing.
Ms Rayner also opened the door to a wider cap on political donations from UK individuals and companies. “It’s not as simple as saying we won’t put a cap,” she told the BBC, saying officials have been instructed to look at how one could work.
Labour MP Stella Creasy tabled an amendment to the bill to prevent donors from giving more than £100,000 in a single year, but it was not debated. Instead, the Government said it would set up a taskforce to look at mega-donors. Labour peer Lord Wills is expected to raise the issue today(MON) and to table an amendment in the House of Lords.
Reform insists the two men want nothing in exchange for the donations, and will not receive a knighthood, peerage or government contracts. But the record sums have sparked alarm over whether mega-donations could have a distorting impact on British politics.
Elections expert Robert Hayward said electoral law was struggling to keep up with donations of this scale and warned it could trigger an “arms race” among political parties. “If we don’t do anything about our law then there is no question, we will be into American politics where money buys attention, and attention buys votes,” he told the BBC.
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak told reporters on Sunday: “I think they are going to cause a crisis in our democracy.” He said there was no comparison between a care worker or someone working in a car plant giving a few pounds a year to a union, which lobbies openly for its members.
Mr Nowak said: “I don’t know what’s driving Christopher Harborne or [Ben] Delo in making those donations. I suspect it’s not the welfare of workers or our public services, or tackling climate change, or reindustrialising the country.
“I don’t think it’s a surprise or a shock that both of them are crypto billionaires and the one set of policies Reform does seem to have fully worked out is about de-regulating crypto.” He added: “The public will say what does he want for his £36million? Is he doing just because he’s a nice fella?”
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said the country needs to make sure “our democracy cannot be bought” and called for a rapid review on political donations. She said: “For individual donors there must be a cap. There just has to be a cap. I think at some point it gets beyond what people think as normal.”
Reform has announced a number of crypto-friendly policies, including a pledge to slash taxes on crypto assets and set up a “Bitcoin reserve”. Mr Farage told crypto enthusiasts last year that he was so opposed to plans by the Bank of England for a digital currency that he was “prepared to go to prison” to stop it, according to footage of the Zebu Live event in London.
Mr Farage said in October that he’d get rid of Mr Bailey if he was in charge, saying: “He’s had a good run. We might find someone new.” In January he refused to guarantee the Governor would be allowed to serve out his term to March 2028.
TUC Assistant General Secretary Kate Bell said: “This is proof that Nigel Farage and Reform are already doing the bidding of their billionaire crypto backers. Their priority isn’t helping working people – it’s serving corporate interests.”
On Sunday, Mr Jenrick denied his party was “very pro-cryptocurrency”, saying he wanted to see “proper regulation”. He told the BBC: “At the moment, it’s a wild west in many respects. What we want to see is good regulation here in the UK through the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) so we can protect people.”
But shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat issued a warning about the murky world of crypto. He told Sky News: “The crypto industry has got many supporters, I know, including in Iran where they use it to buy weapons from Venezuela; including in Russia where they use it to launder money in order to pay agents around Europe.”