Reform UK received £7 million from two overseas British crypto billionaires in the first three months of this year, according to Electoral Commission filings published Thursday, helping the party cement its fundraising lead over Labour and the Conservatives.
Hong Kong-based businessman Ben Delo gave £4 million to Nigel Farage’s party, while Christopher Harborne, who lives in Thailand, donated £3 million, the filings show. The donations accounted for the majority of the £9.3 million in private donations Reform declared during the period, and around a third of the £20.7 million total declared by all political parties.
The donations were made in the weeks before the government announced a planned £100,000 annual cap on donations from British citizens living overseas, to be applied retrospectively from March 25 once legislation passes Parliament. Ministers said the move, announced alongside a government-commissioned review earlier this year, would reduce the risk that impermissible donations from foreign nationals would “slip through the net.”
The cap has prompted a dispute between Reform and the Labour government. Reform has accused Labour of “choking off legal funding for its main rival,” according to a party representative. Harborne has previously claimed he was “the reason” the government introduced the cap, and has said he could challenge the limit in court.
The filings show Reform accepted £2 million from Delo on Jan. 14, and another £2 million on March 2, as well as £3 million from Harborne on Jan. 23. None of the donations was made in cryptocurrency. Sheffield-born Delo, who co-founded the cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX, is a first-time donor to the party. Harborne gave £12 million in total to Reform in 2025, including a £9 million donation in August that was the largest single sum ever given by a living person to a British political party.
The party also declared a further £1.1 million in donations from biotech entrepreneur David Grainger.
Farage is under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner over whether he should have declared a separate £5 million cash gift he received from Harborne ahead of the 2024 election upon his election as an MP. Farage has argued he was under no obligation to register the “purely private” gift, as it was unrelated to his parliamentary or political activities.
Reform’s large individual donations far outstripped those of Labour and the Conservatives, who each declared around £4 million in donations from private sources over the period. Labour’s biggest donations were £550,000 each from longtime donor Lord David Sainsbury and Gary Lubner, the former boss of Autoglass. The party also declared a total of £1.4 million from seven unions, including £392,544 from Unite and £366,936 from Unison. The Greens registered £209,000 in private donations, with the Liberal Democrats declaring £2.2 million.
The latest figures come after Reform received more than £5.4 million in large donations in the final three months of last year, more than any other party, as parties sought to fill their coffers ahead of a crucial set of elections in May.
Political parties are required to report all donations above £11,180 to the Electoral Commission. The figures do not include smaller donations or income from membership fees, which appear separately in parties’ annual accounts. Opposition parties also receive public funds to support their parliamentary duties, with allocations based on their performance at the previous election. In the first three months of this year, the Conservatives received £1.8 million from this route, the Lib Dems received £727,134, and Reform received £98,763.
In April, Delo wrote that he planned to bring forward his plans to return to the UK so he could continue to “contribute more to Reform’s budget.” Harborne has not ruled out returning to the UK to get around the cap.