Reform UK Banks £72 Million From Two Crypto Billionaires in 24 Hours

Reform UK took in £72 million in political donations over two days this month, more than every UK political party combined raised in all of last year.

BitMEX founder Ben Delo pledged £36 million on Friday, September 11, according to The Telegraph, where he announced the gift. Thailand-based entrepreneur Christopher Harborne matched it Saturday in a Telegraph op-ed, according to the BBC. Harborne called it his "competitive spirit" at work.

The two donations are jointly the largest ever given to a UK political party, eclipsing the £10 million John Sainsbury left the Conservatives in 2022, according to The Straits Times.

What The Donors Said

Delo, who described himself as retired from crypto, wrote that Labour and the Conservatives "have entrenched advantages that Reform cannot hope to match" after "hundreds of years" of party infrastructure, according to The Straits Times. He said he was front-loading the gift, effectively £1 million a month through August 2029, partly to get ahead of new donation rules Parliament is considering.

Harborne echoed the point in his own Telegraph piece, cited by the BBC. Reform is a "start-up party" that "needs more money than can be provided by membership fees alone." Both men said they expect nothing personally in return, no peerage, no policy favor, just a party they believe is "ready for government."

Farage called the gifts "honoured and humbled" territory, saying Delo and Harborne's generosity meant Reform could "fight and win the next general election on a level playing field," according to The Guardian.

The Numbers Behind The Numbers

Breitbart reported Reform had already outraised its rivals in the first half of 2026, £14.9 million against £10.2 million for the Conservatives and £7.7 million for Labour. Going back to Reform's 2001 founding, the party had raised £38 million total before these two gifts, compared with £150 million for the Conservatives and £128 million for Labour, per the same report. The Conservatives also collect roughly £5.5 million a year in taxpayer-funded "Short Money" for opposition parties, versus about £400,000 for Reform.

The Investigations Running Alongside The Money

None of this is happening in a vacuum. The Metropolitan Police confirmed on September 9 that detectives are investigating Reform over potential offenses tied to party donations, according to The Epoch Times. That followed a Channel 4 News undercover investigation, aired September 3 during Reform's party conference, carried out by investigative group Verbatim, which spent a year posing as American donors with British connections. The footage showed Reform's then-head of policy James Orr and Farage aide Dan Jukes discussing funding arrangements with the undercover team. Both men have been suspended pending an internal review, and both deny wrongdoing, per ITV News.

Farage told the BBC he was "frankly not listening" during the recorded lunch and later called some of the comments "loose pub talk." Reform says it was the target of a hoax by climate activists and denies any wrongdoing.

Separately, Farage faces a parliamentary standards commissioner investigation, reopened after he won back his Clacton seat, over a £5 million gift from Harborne he did not declare before the 2024 election. Farage has argued the money was a "purely private" gift unrelated to his political work and carried no obligation to register it. The Met is also examining donations from Fiona Cottrell, mother of longtime Farage ally George Cottrell, and a company tied to deputy leader Richard Tice, according to the BBC and Yahoo UK News.

The Political Fight Over Donation Caps

Critics argue two men writing £72 million in checks to one party in a weekend is exactly the kind of concentrated influence that should worry voters, regardless of what the donors say they want. Labour MP Richard Burgon put it bluntly to The Independent: "Our democracy should not be for sale." Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Lisa Smart accused Farage of trying "to bring Trump's America to our shores by buying his way into power," per ITV News.

Reform's defenders have a fair counter: there is currently no legal cap on how much a UK-based donor can give. The gifts are fully disclosed under rules in place since 2001, and Reform argues it is simply competing against parties with a century-plus head start in fundraising infrastructure and taxpayer subsidies the newer party doesn't get. Delo made that case directly, saying critics expressing "mock concern" for democracy are really just protecting a two-party "cartel."

Parliament has already moved on the underlying complaint. MPs backed legislation capping overseas donations at £100,000 and suspending crypto-currency funding, according to ITV News, though the bill still needs House of Lords approval to become law. Reform says the changes amount to an attempt to choke its funding rather than protect elections. Ministers say the goal is keeping foreign money out of British politics.

What happens next hinges on two separate processes: whether the Lords pass the donation cap before the next scheduled election window, and what the Metropolitan Police's live investigation into Reform's fundraising practices, including the Channel 4 footage and the Cottrell and Tice donations, ultimately turns up. No charges have been filed in either matter as of this reporting.