UK political donations hit record £72M as Reform UK exploits legal loophole
A record-breaking pair of donations landed in Reform UK’s bank account within 24 hours last weekend, and the size of the gift has reopened a fight over how UK political donations should be regulated. Crypto entrepreneurs Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo each handed the party £36 million, a combined £72 million that instantly became the largest single donation in British political history — and put Westminster back on edge about foreign money buying influence in domestic politics.
Key takeaways
- Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo each gave Reform UK £36 million, totalling £72 million — the biggest donation ever recorded in UK politics.
- Both men are legally allowed to donate because they are registered UK voters, even though Harborne lives in Thailand and Delo has recently moved back from Hong Kong.
- Legislation currently before Parliament would cap donations from British citizens living overseas at £100,000, but it does not apply to UK-registered voters like Harborne and Delo.
- Angela Rayner said the government is looking at tougher rules so billionaires who don’t pay UK taxes “can’t buy your way into our democracy.”
- Reform UK brought in £5.4 million in donations in the second quarter of 2026 alone, of which £4 million came from a single Delo donation — underlining how dependent the party is on a handful of wealthy backers.
Record-Breaking Donations to Reform UK
The £72 million combined gift dwarfs anything British politics has seen before. According to figures cited by the BBC, the sum exceeds the total amount raised by every UK political party across the whole of last year, which stood at just over £69 million. Delo’s £36 million arrived first, announced late on a Friday; Harborne matched it within a day, telling the Telegraph that his “competitive spirit” had pushed him to equal the gift and that he expected “nothing personally” in return.
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