Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party received a substantial financial injection of £3 million from crypto investor Christopher Harborne in November, according to recent official data. This contribution followed Harborne’s record-breaking donation of £9 million to the right-wing party in August.
Harborne, an investor and aviation entrepreneur residing in Thailand, has previously made significant donations to the Brexit Party and the Conservative Party under Boris Johnson’s leadership. The Electoral Commission’s data revealed that Reform UK amassed over £5.4 million in donations during the final quarter of last year.
Among other political parties, the Conservatives secured over £2.4 million, while Labour received more than £1.9 million, and the Liberal Democrats obtained more than £1.3 million during the same period. Farage clarified that Harborne’s donations were made without any expectations of favors in return, emphasizing his long-standing support for Brexit-related causes.
The financial records also indicated that both Reform UK and the Tories accepted £200,000 each from construction equipment company JCB. In a separate instance, Scottish Labour received £100,000 from Ecotricity, founded by green energy mogul Dale Vince, in November.
Labour additionally obtained funding exceeding £55,000 from Labour Together, a think tank formerly overseen by ex-Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, in October. The organization faced scrutiny for allegedly engaging PR firm Apco Worldwide for investigative purposes involving journalists from various media outlets.
This controversy led to the resignation of former Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons, who headed the think tank at the time. Despite being cleared of breaching the Ministerial Code by Keir Starmer’s ethics adviser, Simons decided to step down, citing his resignation as necessary to prevent detracting from the government’s crucial tasks.
In his resignation letter to the Prime Minister, Simons expressed regret over becoming a distraction and offered his resignation.
