Crypto Billionaires Hand Farage's Reform £72 Million
Crypto Billionaires Hand Farage's Reform £72 Million
The News
Nigel Farage's Reform UK has taken in £72 million — roughly $97 million — from two cryptocurrency billionaires, and the size of the gift has set off a fight in Westminster over who is allowed to bankroll British politics.
The donors are Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, according to reporting on the gifts.
Labour-aligned unions are demanding action. Reform says the outrage is hypocrisy from a party funded by organized labor.
The Numbers
£72 million in two donations, reported as about $97 million in U.S. terms — a sum without precedent in recent British party fundraising, and the reason peers are now looking at the law.
Timeline
News reports disclose that Reform UK, the anti-immigration party led by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, received $97 million from two cryptocurrency billionaires, fueling concerns about money in British politics.
Daily Mail columnist Stephen Glover writes that he was "taken aback" by the scale of the two donations, but argues Labour's outrage over them is hypocrisy.
The BBC reports peers will debate changes to Britain's political donations law, with the government seeking to change the rules covering donations from British expats. The same morning, the Daily Mail reports unions are pressing Andy Burnham to act over the "super-donations" while defending their own funding of Labour.
Reactions
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the gifts from crypto billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo showed the influence of the "super-rich," according to the Daily Mail.
The same report says union leaders pressing Burnham to act insist their own funding of the Labour Party is a different matter.
Reform's Richard Tice turned the charge back on Labour, The Independent reported, in a row that has pulled in the GMB union.
Glover, writing in the Daily Mail, said some readers may hold their noses at the windfall, but called Labour's indignation "as egregious a piece of hypocrisy as you'll find."
What's Next
The House of Lords is set to debate changes to the donations law in the wake of the £72 million windfall.
The government's stated aim is to change the rules on donations to UK political parties from British expats — a change that would bear directly on how money like this reaches a party.
More
The fight is a British version of an argument Americans know well: whether very large private gifts buy influence, and whether the party on the receiving end is the only one with a problem. Labour draws heavily on union money; Reform has now drawn a nine-figure sum from two private fortunes built in crypto.
Poll
Should Britain cap the size of political donations?
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