Reform leader Nigel Farage declared himself "humbled" by two donations of £36m each from cryptocurrency tycoons Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

The largest single donations in British political history were made after a dismal party conference, the substance of which was all but obscured by the financial scandals engulfing Reform.

More detail on the donations

Let's start with more detail on the donations, by businessmen who have amassed astronomical fortunes trading in cryptocurrency. Ben Delo, a previous Reform donor, has given £36m. Delo was convicted in the US in 2022 for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his trillion-dollar cryptocurrency business BitMEX, before being pardoned by Donald Trump last year.

(A brief note here on how that story came to light: the Sunday Times approached Reform and Farage after a confidential source told them that Delo had donated to the party. Soon after, the Telegraph published an opinion piece by Delo himself, announcing the donation and trouncing the Sunday Times scoop. As Sunday Times political editor Ben Riley-Smith noted on X: "A fundamental part of political reporting – approaching for comment before publishing – just totally breaks down if this is what happens. Bad for both sides: Will increase the chance of inaccuracies." Reform has used the same tactic with the Guardian, as we talked about in a previous newsletter.)

Less than 24 hours later, another crypto donor was troubling the Telegraph's op-ed page: this time Christopher Harborne – whose previous £5m gift to Farage is the one currently subject to a parliamentary standards investigation – announcing he had likewise donated £36m, saying: "My competitive spirit inspired me to match [Delo]."

Taken together, these donations are unprecedented in British political history: £72m is bigger than the total sum spent by the seven largest parties in the last general election (about £67.9m) and almost double the total donations to all political parties so far this year (about £41.8m).

"There's nothing wrong with these donations that we know of," says Jessica, her final four words doing a lot of heavy lifting in present circumstances. The Metropolitan police is conducting an inquiry into Reform's finances and Farage is facing a parliamentary standards investigation into that £5m Harborne gift, made before he was first elected an MP in 2024 and first revealed by the Guardian. Reform and Farage have denied any wrongdoing.

It's a legal requirement for every party to rigorously check the sources of donations, and, doing the media rounds yesterday, Reform's economics spokesperson Robert Jenrick was sounding supremely confident that the donations were "entirely in line with the law as it is and, as far as we know, what it is going to be in the future".

Jenrick was referencing the representation of the people bill, going through parliament, which will bring in more stringent rules about foreign donations. Gifts to political parties from Britons living abroad or those who have returned to the country within the past 12 months will be capped at £100,000 a year, with the rules backdated to March. Delo has recently moved back to Britain from Hong Kong, while Harborne is a citizen of the UK and Thailand.

Why this matters

These are gamechanging donations, transformative if used effectively at this stage in the election cycle, just as Labour has regained its confidence and the Tories are contemplating a comeback. As the financial dubiety continues, and the numbers of millions tick upwards to seem almost meaningless, it might be tempting to roll your eyes and focus elsewhere – but this is not the time to look away.

A bill that could stop donations like this in their tracks returns to the Lords later today. Labour MPs are scrambling to realign around that bill.