Reform UK raised £9.3 million from private donations in the first three months of 2026, according to data published by the UK Electoral Commission on Thursday (4 June). This amount was by far higher than the donations received by the Labor Party and the Conservative Party separately in the same period.
The majority of donations came from two crypto investors
Two crypto investors provided the majority of donations to Reform UK. One of them was Ben Delo, one of the co-founders of BitMEX, and the other was Christopher Harborne, a British Thai investor based in Thailand and an early supporter of Tether. Reform UK, the political party led by Nigel Farage, has been ranked first in the country in fundraising for the last three quarters.
Mini dictionary: BitMEX is a platform known for crypto derivatives transactions. Tether, on the other hand, is known as the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, whose value is mostly tried to be kept fixed to the US dollar.
According to the data, Delo donated a total of up to £ 4 million in two separate payments made in January and March. Harborne contributed more than £3 million at once in January. Other donations to Reform UK included David Grainger, known for his health and longevity-themed investments, and Navroz Udwadia, one of the founding partners of the investment company New Wave Global.
A total of £24.7 million was donated to registered parties in the UK in the first quarter of 2026. This figure indicated an increase of 214 percent compared to the same period last year.
How was the picture shaped in other parties?
Labor received £4 million in donations during the same period. The highest individual contributions came from Lord David Sainsbury and Gary Lubner, who each gave £550,000. The Conservative Party’s first quarter total was £4.2 million. Among this amount, the donation of £1.1 million made by Mary V Doran stood out.
Total donations to all registered parties in the UK in the first quarter of 2026 reached £24.7 million. Thus, the volume of political financing increased by 214 percent on an annual basis.
Donor background and scrutiny on Farage
Harborne’s fortune is estimated at £18.2 billion. It is reported that most of this asset comes from crypto-related investments, especially its share in Tether. It is stated that the total donation made to Reform UK in the last year exceeded 15 million pounds.
Ben Delo’s public past is more controversial. Delo pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act due to inadequate anti-money laundering controls at BitMEX. He was given 30 months probation and then pardoned by US President Donald Trump last year. In his article published in the Daily Telegraph in April, Delo was reported to have said that he entered politics to prevent Britain from falling into an irreversible decline and that he planned to move from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom.
Nigel Farage, meanwhile, faces scrutiny from the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over a £5 million personal gift he received from Harborne ahead of the 2024 general election. Parliamentary rules require MPs to declare all donations related to their political life dating back to a year before they take office.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer asked Nigel Farage at Prime Minister’s Questions why the Reform leader avoided questions about the donation and why he kept the amount secret in the first place.
How is the government approaching crypto donations?
Farage initially said the money was for lifetime personal security expenses. He later described the payment as a reward from Harborne for his work on the Brexit campaign. Reform UK, on the other hand, argues that the amount in question is considered a personal gift and does not create a declaration obligation. If a restraining order for 10 sitting days or more is issued at the end of the review, a recall process and by-election for the Clacton seat may be on the agenda.
The Labor Party government announced in March that there would be a moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to political parties and a 100 thousand pound upper limit for donations from abroad. At the time of this statement, it was stated that the only British party accepting crypto donations was Reform UK. Jackie Killeen from the Electoral Commission also stated that there is high transparency in the country’s political financing system, but there are areas that need to be further strengthened.
