Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has received a £9m donation from Christopher Harborne, a leading cryptocurrency investor, as well as £50,000 from the wife of the owner of the Daily Mail.
Harborne, who also has interests in defence and aviation fuel, gave the record donation to Reform over the summer in a boost to the party’s finances before its autumn conference.
This year Reform became the first political party to accept donations in crypto but the £9m was made in cash rather than digital currency.
The size of Harborne’s gift to Reform prompted campaign groups including Spotlight on Corruption and Transparency International to renew calls for a cap on political donations.
The donation was revealed in new figures from the Electoral Commission, which showed Reform bringing in millions more than either the Conservatives or Labour.
Farage’s party also got £50,000 from Claudia Rothermere, the wife of Jonathan Rothermere, who owns the Daily Mail and General Trust and is bidding to take over the Telegraph titles.
Other donations included a further £490,000 from Nick Candy, the party’s honorary treasurer and a former Tory donor, as well as £100,000 from the tech billionaire Bassim Haidar, another ex-Conservative.
However, these sums are far outweighed by the £9m from Harborne. The low-profile businessman, who describes himself as intensely private, was previously one of the single biggest donors in politics when he gave more than £10m in tranches to Farage’s Brexit party to fund its 2019 election campaign.
He subsequently donated £1m to the office of Boris Johnson after the former prime minister left Downing Street and accompanied him on a trip to Ukraine. In January, Farage accepted £28,000 from Harborne to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Harborne, who began his career as a management consultant, lived in Thailand for about 20 years, where he is also known under the Thai name of Chakrit Sakunkrit. He has a stake in the defence tech firm Qinetiq, as well as AML Global, an aviation-fuel producer.
Harborne was also a backer of the cryptocurrency Tether, which the Guardian reported last month has been found by National Crime Agency investigators to be used to help Russia fight its war against Ukraine.
He took a 12% stake in Tether around 2016, court papers say, although it is unclear what share of Tether’s profits he has received and there is no suggestion he is involved in illicit activity.
At the time, Harborne’s lawyers said that accusing an investor in Tether of complicity in crimes perpetrated by users of its tokens would be “akin to claiming the US Treasury is an accomplice in money laundering because it prints the US dollar”. A Tether representative also said the company “unequivocally condemns the illegal use of stablecoins and is fully committed to combating illicit activity”.
The Electoral Commission data showed that, overall, Reform received more than £10m, the Conservatives almost £7m and Labour about £2.5m.
Jackie Killeen, the director of regulation at the Electoral Commission, said: “The UK political finance system has high levels of transparency, and we know that voters are interested in where parties get their money from. This quarterly publication is an important part of delivering this information for voters. However, we know there are parts of the system that need strengthening, and we have been calling for changes to the law for some time.
“The UK government’s proposed reforms to the political finance regime have the potential to improve the strength of donation controls and help ensure voters can have confidence in the political finance system. We will continue to work with the government so that any changes are evidence based and workable in practice.”
Rose Zussman, a senior policy manager at Transparency International UK, said: “This record-breaking donation shows how dependent our political parties have become on a super-rich few. When single donations reach these extraordinary levels, it reinforces the public’s belief that money talks loudest in the corridors of power.
“The government has promised to protect democracy by strengthening the rules on political finance. If ministers don’t want our democracy sold to the highest bidder they should introduce a cap on how much anyone can give annually.”
Susan Hawley, the executive director of Spotlight on Corruption, added: “These levels of donations should have no place in our politics, whichever party they go to.
“At a very minimum, the government must consider ways to prevent a donation and spending arms race which could lead to enormous sums being injected into political parties, completely skewing the playing field at elections. There is nothing yet in their strategy to suggest they are taking this seriously.
“Ultimately, there needs to be a proper review about how our politics is funded to protect our democracy, which must include extensive citizen engagement.”
