Reform UK gets second £36m crypto gift, donor says

Cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne said Saturday that he had donated £36 million, or $49 million, to Nigel Farage's Reform UK, matching another £36 million gift to the party announced less than a day earlier.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Harborne called the money “a philanthropic gift to our country” and said it was aimed at helping the anti-immigration party prepare for government and build the kind of infrastructure older parties have.

Ben Delo, a co-founder of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange who is based in Hong Kong, had announced his own £36 million donation to Reform in the same newspaper. Delo said he wanted to give the party £1 million a month until the next general election, due by mid-2029, and had front-loaded the money into a single payment.

The two gifts each exceed the previous reported record for a single donation from a living person to a UK political party. Harborne had set that record last year with a £9 million donation to Reform. The record for a bequest remains the £10 million left to the Conservatives by the late British businessman and politician John Sainsbury in 2022.

Farage welcomed the donations. “Thanks to the generosity of Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, Reform will now be able to fight and win the next general election on a level playing field,” he said on X.

Delo, 42, pleaded guilty in the United States in 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2025. Election watchdog filings showed he had already given Reform £4 million this year.

The donations come while Reform faces scrutiny over its funding. Police confirmed days earlier that they had widened a criminal investigation into allegations the party accepted illegal donations after fresh claims last week. Reform has also faced scrutiny over a separate £5 million personal gift from Harborne to Farage, who has said the money was for his security. Parliament's corruption watchdog is investigating that payment.

Reform has topped national opinion polls since early last year, but its lead has slipped to Labour in recent months, according to the supplied polling description.