Reform UK has received £20 million in donations from cryptocurrency investors since the 2024 general election, according to reports.
The Independent has found 60% of the funding for Nigel Farage’s party comes from wealthy individuals linked to digital currency.
The largest set of donations – adding up to £15 million overall – came from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne.
That’s the same businessman who gave Farage £5 million months before he was elected as the Clacton MP in the general election.
Farage is now facing a parliamentary sleaze probe for failing to declare that gift in the register of MPs’ interests once he was in the Commons.
The Reform leader insists it was a personal gift and so did not need to be declared.
The Independent’s analysis of Electoral Commission data adds pressure to the party, already facing intense scrutiny over its finances.
It found other donors like Ben Peter Delo, founder of cryptocurrency trading platform Bitmex, gave two £2m payments to Reform this year.
The wife of US crypto investor John Rost, Maria Rost, also gave nine payments worth £125,000.
Simon William Smith, a London-based bitcoin investor, donated £116,000 shortly before the election.
The former of the Bitcoin derivatives trading firm A1X, Oscar Townsley, also gave the party £30,000 last year.
The newspaper noted the Tories received £82,250 in donations from crypto investor and hedge fund manager Alan Eldad Howard.
However, it did not spot any crypto donations for Labour, the Liberal Democrats or the Green Party in the Electoral Commission data.
A Reform UK spokesman told HuffPost UK: “Reform takes pride in its stringent vetting of donations and always ensures that the Electoral Commission guidelines on donations, as set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, are strictly followed, as has been the case with all donations.”
Labour chair Bridget Phillipson tore into findings, especially after Farage triggered a new by-election in Clacton over the heightened attention his finances were getting.
Source: Read the original article on www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
