Two record-breaking donations from crypto billionaires to Reform UK last week have sparked a debate about Britain’s party funding rules, reports BritPanorama.
Several MPs are now backing calls for Labour to introduce a cap on political donations, citing fears over the influence of big money on UK politics. The House of Lords is currently considering a £100,000 cap on donors based overseas as part of the government’s Representation of the People Bill.
However, the £72m secured by Nigel Farage’s party has prompted calls for the bill to extend further to cap all individual donations.
Christopher Harborne
Crypto tycoon and British billionaire Christopher Harborne is the UK’s biggest individual donor by a significant margin. He revealed on Saturday he was giving Reform £36m as a “philanthropic gift to our country,” bringing the total of his donations to the party to £51m. This excludes the undeclared £5m “gift” to Mr Farage himself, which is currently being probed by parliament’s standards commissioner.
Born in Mosborough, a village near Sheffield, in 1962, Mr Harborne was educated at the elite Westminster School before receiving a master’s degree in engineering at the University of Cambridge. Now 63, he has been based in Thailand long-term, holding citizenship under the name Chakrit Sakunkrit. Nonetheless, many of his interests remain in the UK; he was reported in June to have registered to vote in Hampshire.
An early investor in Bitcoin and Ethereum and a major shareholder of cryptocurrency Tether, which Mr Farage has previously advocated, Harborne became chief executive and chief DEI officer at Sherriff Global Group in 2000, and is also the owner of AML Global, a Singapore-based aviation fuel firm. Before aligning himself with Reform, he was a Tory donor for more than two decades, contributing nearly £1.8m to the party.
Ben Delo
Ben Delo, 42, founder of cryptocurrency trading platform BitMex, also made headlines with a £36m donation to Reform last week. Previously convicted in the US for failings in an anti-money laundering programme in 2022, he was pardoned by former President Donald Trump last year. Born in Sheffield and now based in Dubai, Delo stated in April his intention to return to the UK to avoid restrictions on overseas donations.
Delo aims to ensure the party is given a “fair fight” as it prepares for government. Diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at age 11, he graduated from the University of Oxford in 2005 with a double first-class honours degree in mathematics and computer science. He later co-founded the Sheila Coates Foundation, an initiative supporting students with autism in Britain.
Lord David Sainsbury of Turville
British businessman and politician Lord David Sainsbury, 85, has registered the biggest donations received by both the Liberal Democrats and Labour. Although a long-time Labour supporter, he withdrew his funding during the Jeremy Corbyn era and contributed a single donation of £8m to the Lib Dems. Under Keir Starmer, he has returned, donating more than £11m to Labour overall.
He served as the chair of Sainsbury’s from 1992 to 1997 and was made a life peer in 1997, serving in government as the minister for science and innovation from 1998 to 2006.
Lord John Sainsbury of Preston Candover
Lord John Sainsbury, who died in 2022, was a notable Conservative supporter and one of the largest individual donors in British politics. He left the Tories £10m in his will, which had been the largest single donation to a party in UK history until last week. He began working in his family’s business in 1950 and became chair and chief executive in 1969.
Gary Lubner
Autoglass founder Gary Lubner, 67, has significantly contributed to Labour, donating nearly £8.4m over the years. He led Belron, the parent company of Autoglass, for two decades before stepping down in 2022. Lubner previously denied attempting to secure a peerage through his donations, expressing his desire to donate the “vast majority” of his wealth to charitable causes.
Graham Edwards
Property tycoon Graham Edwards, 62, has made substantial contributions to the Conservative Party, exceeding £6m. Co-founder of the property investment company TT Group, he was appointed Tory treasurer in 2022 and nominated for a life peerage by Kemi Badenoch last year, though he was ultimately excluded from the announcement.
Edwards’ tax affairs have come under scrutiny; a tribunal judge blocked a complex tax avoidance scheme set up by KPMG for their clients, finding that he improperly sought to reduce taxes on £5m in bonuses.
