Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has received £72 million (roughly $97 million) in cash donations from two cryptocurrency billionaires in the space of 48 hours, a sum that exceeds what every registered British political party raised in the whole of 2025.
The gifts came from Ben Delo, co-founder of the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX, and Christopher Harborne, a British investor who holds a large stake in stablecoin issuer Tether Limited. Both donations were paid in sterling, not digital tokens, and both landed while the Metropolitan Police (Met) continues an active criminal investigation into Reform UK’s donation practices.
Delo, 42, disclosed the first £36 million in an opinion piece published in The Daily Telegraph on the evening of Friday, 11 September 2026, writing that he wanted Reform UK to fight the next general election on a “level playing field”.
He said he had originally planned to give £1 million a month until August 2029, the latest lawful date for a general election, but chose to transfer the entire sum in a single payment out of concern that the government could later restrict large political donations.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) confirmed the announcement, noting the figure exceeds the previous £10 million high, a bequest from Lord John Sainsbury to the Conservative Party in 2022, and dwarfs the £9 million that Harborne himself gave Reform UK in August 2025, which was then the largest single political donation from a living individual in British history.
Harborne matches the record
Harborne, a British national based in Thailand, matched the record on Saturday, 12 September 2026, in his own Daily Telegraph column, writing that his “competitive spirit” drove the second £36 million and that he expected “nothing personally” from the gift beyond “a party that is ready for government”.
Farage said in a statement carried by The Telegraph: “I am honoured and humbled that Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne have shown such confidence in Reform. Both men know that we are the only party that can turn the country around and win the next general election – thanks to their generosity, we are now able to fight that election on a level playing field.”
The £72 million two-day total is more than the roughly £69 million received by all UK political parties in 2025. Reform UK said the money will fund policy staff and around 400 campaign managers ahead of the next national vote.
The donors
Delo co-founded BitMEX with Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed in 2014. In February 2022, he pleaded guilty in the United States (US) to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) over the exchange’s failure to establish and maintain adequate anti-money laundering (AML) controls, and he received a 30-month probation sentence.
On 27 March 2025, US President Donald Trump granted Delo a full and unconditional pardon alongside Hayes, Reed, former BitMEX head of business development Gregory Dwyer, and BitMEX operating entity HDR Global Trading Limited, according to the US Office of the Pardon Attorney. Delo has since said he is moving back to the UK from Hong Kong.
Before this weekend, he had already given Reform UK £8 million in 2026, split between £4 million in the first quarter and a further £4 million accepted in April through two cash payments of £1 million on 17 April and £3 million on 30 April, according to Electoral Commission filings.
Harborne is reported to hold about a 12% stake in Tether Limited, the issuer of USDT, the largest stablecoin by market capitalisation. He has been Reform UK’s biggest long-term financial backer, contributing £9 million in August 2025 and a further £3 million in January 2026, with cumulative donations to the party exceeding £15 million since the last general election.
His January contribution formed part of the £7 million that he and Delo together supplied to Reform UK in the first quarter of 2026, which alone accounted for roughly three-quarters of the party’s quarterly haul.
Separately, Harborne paid Farage a £5 million personal gift in June 2024, weeks before the Reform leader announced his campaign for the Clacton parliamentary seat. Farage has said the money was a personal, unconditional gift unrelated to his political activity and the matter is currently the subject of a parliamentary standards inquiry.
Cash, not tokens
Reform UK was the first British political party to accept donations in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency tokens. That route is currently closed. Following the Rycroft Review’s recommendation on 25 March 2026, an independent review into foreign financial influence in UK politics led by former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft, the Labour government announced an immediate moratorium on political donations made in crypto assets, to be formalised through an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill.
The same package introduced an annual cap of £100,000 on political donations from British citizens residing overseas. Neither Delo’s nor Harborne’s 2026 donations were made in cryptocurrency; both were paid in cash.
Police inquiry already under way
The two record donations arrived while the Met continues a criminal probe into Reform UK’s fundraising. On Wednesday, 9 September 2026, the Met announced that detectives had identified potential offences requiring investigation under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA), following the broadcast of an undercover film by Channel 4 News and independent production house Verbatim Investigations on Thursday, 3 September 2026.
In that film, senior Reform UK aides James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a close aide to Farage, appeared to discuss arrangements with people they believed represented a wealthy US donor, including talk of funding party polling and of channelling money through a UK-based intermediary. Channel 4 said the conversations raised questions about compliance with rules that ban donations from foreign individuals.
Both stepped down after the broadcast aired. The new work has been folded into an existing Special Enquiry Team investigation opened in February 2025 following an Electoral Commission referral about 2024 donations linked to Fiona Cottrell, mother of Farage ally George Cottrell. Reform UK denies any wrongdoing and says it will cooperate fully.
UK electoral law allows political parties to accept money from British voters on the electoral register and from UK-registered companies, and there is currently no cap on how much a domestic donor can give.
Standards inquiry continues
Farage remains under a parliamentary standards inquiry over whether the £5 million he received from Harborne in June 2024 should have been declared in the register of Members’ financial interests within one month of his election to the House of Commons in July 2024.
He resigned his Clacton seat on 7 July 2026 as scrutiny around the payment intensified, and subsequently won the resulting Clacton by-election held on 13 August 2026 with the result declared on 14 August. Official figures show Farage took 22,239 votes, or 63.3%. He returned to Parliament while the standards commissioner’s work continued. Farage has maintained that he was under no obligation to register what he has described as a “purely private” gift.
Political reaction
Liberal Democrat spokesperson Lisa Smart said Farage was “trying to get into Number 10 as if it’s a stop on a Monopoly board”. Rival parties argue that unlimited billionaire gifts distort UK elections and have renewed calls for a statutory cap on individual political donations.
In his own column, Delo wrote that people who talked about “the health of our democracy” while defending a two-party “cartel” were the problem, and that Reform UK should spend “less time trying to raise funds to compete on equal terms and more time preparing for government”.
Harborne described his own contribution as “a philanthropic gift to our country”, arguing that Reform UK policies would attract investment and fund healthcare, education, and social care.
No official finding has tied the two £36 million donations announced this weekend to any breach of UK donation law. The Electoral Commission has not made any public statement suggesting the weekend gifts fall outside permissible sources under PPERA.
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