Farage's party receives record $49 million donation from crypto billionaire

Farage's party received a $49 million donation from a crypto billionaire. This is a record donation for British parties

Author, News Department

Place of work, BBC Russian Service

Published a minute ago

Reading time: 5 min

The British right-wing populist party Reform UK received a donation of 36 million pounds sterling (about $49 million) from the British crypto billionaire living in Hong Kong, co-founder of the BitMEX crypto exchange, Ben Delo.

Delo explained his decision in a column for the Telegraph by saying that he wanted to provide a “level playing field” for Nigel Farage’s party, taking into account the financial capabilities of its two main political rivals, the Labor and Conservative parties.

This amount was the largest single donation ever made to a political party in the UK. The previous record amount - 9 million pounds (approximately $12.2 million) - was also received by Reform UK and also from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

The record for the amount of donations received by virtue of a will belongs to the Conservatives - 10 million pounds sterling (about 13.5 million dollars).

Farage said he was "very proud and honored" by the donation.

“Unlike those who feign concern for the state of ‘our democracy’ while doing everything possible to keep it a cartel, I want a fair fight and a level playing field,” Delo writes. “From the party’s recent problems, I concluded that it should spend less time raising funds to compete on a level playing field [in elections] and more time preparing for government.”

Delo previously said he would donate £1 million a month to Farage's party until mid-2029, the deadline for the ruling Labor Party to call a general election. However, he has now decided that he will transfer the entire promised amount at once, in case the government tries to limit large donations in the future.

Currently in the UK there are no limits on donations that citizens living in the country can make to political parties. However, the Labor Party recently announced a limit of 100 thousand pounds sterling (about 135 thousand dollars) on donations from Britons living outside the country. To be able to donate a larger amount, you will need to live in the UK for at least a year. The second reading of this bill is due to take place in the House of Lords on 14 September.

Born in Sheffield, UK and now living in Hong Kong, Delo has already announced that he plans to return to the UK to maintain the opportunity to continue sponsoring Farage's party in the future. He previously donated £4 million to her.

Another major Reform UK donor, Thailand-based Christopher Harborne, is also apparently planning to move to the UK and has already registered to vote there, the Times reported in June. In April 2026, Harborne said government plans to tighten controls on political party funding would not prevent him from continuing to donate to Nigel Farage's party.

Fundraising by Reform UK has repeatedly raised questions among law enforcement officers. Last week, British police announced they had launched an investigation into suspected violations of foreign funding laws by several members of the party's leadership after Channel 4 News aired a report of a hidden-camera conversation about a willingness to break a ban on transfers from foreigners. Farage himself took part and said he had been misunderstood.

Reform UK denied any wrongdoing and said it would cooperate with the investigation.

Farage himself is currently under investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Committee into whether he should have declared a £5 million cash gift he received from Harborne in 2024. At that time, Farage was not an MP and did not intend to run, but soon after receiving a gift from the crypto-billionaire, he changed his mind and ran in the elections, which he won, the Guardian wrote.

Farage claims he should not have declared the “purely private” gift because it was not related to his parliamentary or political activities. In his opinion, the parliamentary investigation is the emergence of a political struggle.

Amid the scandal over this gift, Farage resigned as a deputy and ran for re-election in his constituency, but all British parties decided to boycott them and not present rivals to Farage. His only competitor in the district ended up being the British comedian Jonathan David Harvey, who participated in the elections under the pseudonym of Count Urno-faced.

The police investigation is also examining donations made directly to the party by Fiona Cottrell, the mother of long-time Farage ally George Cottrell. It is also examining payments from a company controlled by Farage's party deputy Richard Tice, which received £1 million from Fiona Cottrell in June 2024.

Representatives of other British parties, commenting on the record donation to Farage’s party, recalled to Reform UK and its leader all previous financial scandals. Thus, a representative of the Labor Party said that Farage is “still up to his neck in scandals” and that “the questions he is being asked are not going away - on the contrary, they are becoming more and more.”

“Reform UK cannot buy its way out of questions about corruption, criminal contacts and questionable finances,” Labor said. “It’s time for Farage and his party to finally come clean to the public, fully cooperate with the police and prove that they are not just acting in their own interests.”

Lib Dem shadow cabinet spokeswoman Lisa Smart said Farage wants to "bring Trump's America to our shores by buying his way to power."