Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, has branded the combined £72m donations from crypto billionaires to Reform UK as a "crisis for our democracy".

Speaking at the TUC's annual congress in Brighton he criticised the donations and rejected comparisons between them and the sums of money donated to the Labour Party by trade unions, saying "we cannot allow our political system to be captured by corporate interests".

"Let no one tell you there is any similarity, any similarity, between care workers chipping in a few quid a year through their union and a party bought and paid for by billionaires," he told the conference.

Reform says the two £36m donations are "entirely within the law" and put it on a level pitch with longstanding parties.

The party's deputy Richard Tice told BBC's Breakfast programme today the two donors were "very successful entrepreneurs" who were trying to "save the country from going bust" without making any demands.

"There'll be nothing given in return," he said.

Image source, George Cracknell Wright/LNP/BEN DELO FOUNDATION

Christopher Harborne

• Harborne is a British cryptocurrency investor and aviation entrepreneur
• He studied engineering at Downing College, Cambridge
• Harborne had been based in Thailand for two decades - and has been reported to hold Thai citizenship by multiple media outlets. Reform says Harborne has returned to the UK, though its deputy Richard Tice was this morning not able to say when
• Harborne previously gave large sums to the Conservatives under Boris Johnson's leadership, as well as Reform's predecessor, the Brexit Party, in 2019 and 2020

Ben Delo

• Delo attended a state comprehensive in Oxfordshire before studying mathematics and computer science at Worcester College, Oxford
• He moved to Hong Kong in 2012 and two years later founded BitMex, a cryptocurrency trading platform. Reform's Tice said this morning he believed Delo had returned to the UK "many months ago"
• Delo was one of the youngest signatories of The Giving Pledge in 2019, promising to give away the majority of his wealth during his lifetime. He says he has donated more than £100m to a range of causes
• Last year, he was given an unconditional pardon by US President Donald Trump over a breach of anti-money laundering laws at BitMex, to which he had pleaded guilty in 2022

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

The prime minister has previously expressed desires to cap the value of donations to political parties, having said "there should be a cap" in an email seen by the BBC.

While campaigning as Labour's candidate in the Makerfield by-election, Andy Burnham was asked in an email exchange with Shaun Bowler, the founder of grassroots campaign WakeUpGB, what his view on capping donations was.

In one email, Burnham said a donations cap "would guard against the perception of any one party being unduly influenced or swayed by one person or organisation".

"As to the level, I think that would have to be subject to wider review of political funding but my gut feeling would suggest somewhere in the region of £500k," Burnham wrote.

What counts as a donation?

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) defines donations as any money, goods or services given to a party without charge or on non-commercial terms.

Some examples of donations include: a gift of money or property, sponsorship of an event or publication, a subscription or affiliation payments, the free or specially discounted use of an office.

Do all donations have to be recorded?

No, donations under £500 do not need to be recorded or reported to the Electoral Commission.

If a donation or multiple donations exceeding £11,800 are received from the same source within a calendar year they must be reported.

Is there a cap on donations?

There are currently no restrictions on the amount of money UK-based donors can give to political parties and politicians.

Why is Reform receiving attention over the £72m in donations?

The sheer scale of Reform UK's record-breaking donation windfall has prompted debate.

At the beginning of this month, before the donations were announced, the government said it was "determined to tackle" the issue of "mega-donors" and was "working at pace to find a solution".

But Reform have accused Labour of wanting to "rig the system" by changing the rules on party donations as they "know they can't win an election fairly".

What would the new proposed law change?

The government is seeking to change the law on donations to UK political parties from British expats.

This would include the introduction of a £100,000 cap on donations and loans from overseas voters.

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Following news this weekend of Reform UK receiving two separate donations of £36m, Conservative shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat said it was important to ensure "we do not end up with a sort of Americanisation of politics where money just sort of runs free".

Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart called for the government to introduce emergency legislation to cap donations.

She said: "This is real emergency for our democracy. It presents a very clear and present threat."

Rachel Millward, deputy leader of the Green Party, told BBC News that her party wanted a cap £500,000 cap on donations from individuals. She said the donations to Reform were "absolutely staggering amounts".

Duncan Hames, director of policy and programmes at campaigning charity Transparency International UK, described the situation as a "watershed moment", adding it makes an "irrefutable case" for government to bring forward an annual cap on political donations.

Debate over Reform's combined £72m donation comes as police investigate the party over separate allegations it broke foreign funding laws.

The Metropolitan Police began looking into Reform earlier this month, following a Channel 4 News broadcast in whichtwo senior party aides recorded by an undercover reporter apparently suggested a way around electoral law to secure foreign party donations.

A Reform UK spokesman said the party "denies any wrongdoing and will fully cooperate with the investigation".

"We won't be commenting further while a live investigation is under way."

The Met Police said it was liaising closely with the Electoral Commission and Crown Prosecution Service throughout its investigation.

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Sir Philip Rycroft suggested earlier that under the proposed legislation, donors would have to have been living in the UK for at least a year before 25 March 2026 to give more than £100,000 to a political party.

That is not quite right.

As we understand it, the law going through Parliament requires donors to have been registered here in the UK by 25 March 2026 for their donations to be uncapped.

Reform UK are adamant that both Delo and Harborne meet this requirement – although we do not know exactly when each moved back from Hong Kong and Thailand respectively – and therefore they will be able to keep the £72 million.

Reform UK announced two separate donations of £36m this weekend, the biggest one-off donations ever given to a political party in the UK.

Before that, the biggest recorded single donation was made by Lord John Sainsbury, who left £10 million in his will for the Conservative Party in 2023.

Christopher Harborne, one of the two people to donate £36m, donated £9m to Reform UK in 2025.

There are currently no rules on how much one person or organisation can donate, but donations over £11,180 must be reported.

A senior figure told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg: "To put £36m in context, one man has donated a sum bigger than Labour's entire 2024 election budget, bigger than the Conservatives', and about six times what Reform actually spent.

"It's the kind of donation that could change how politics is funded in the UK."

Image source, PA Media

Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), says "nobody can be comfortable about the prospect of the super rich effectively buying and selling British politics".

"We don't know what Nigel Farage has promised Ben Delo or Christopher Harborne," he told the Today programme earlier this morning.

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice told the Today programme he hadn't spoken to either men, both cryptocurrency billionaires, about the party's policies in that area. He said he had "no idea" whether Farage had either.

He also said the party's lobbying of the Bank of England on its position on cryptocurrency began well before the donations were made.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has said questions should be asked about "who is funding politics".

"If it is a few individuals that are seen to be able to fund power and politics in democracy, that is a concern," Rayner told Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday.

The cabinet minister did not say whether the Labour party would have accepted similar donations from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborn as she did not know the "circumstances" of either of them.

"We have strict rules around donations. We haven't accepted donations of that amount but the Labour Party as an organisation has very robust rules around the vetting process or where we accept donations from," she said.

Rayner said the government was bringing in legislation to introduce a cap on overseas donations, which will come into force retrospectively from from 25 March this year, and anyone in breach of the new regulations would have 60 days to return the money.

Asked whether the move looks like "sour grapes" towards Reform UK, Rayner said the new legislation was based on recommendations from the Rycroft review which was published on 25 March "before these donations came through" and Labour "didn't know that donors were going to be putting that money in".

"This isn't about individual donors to a political party. This is an issue that has been raised around protecting our democracy from foreign interference."

The bill being debated in the House of Lords later today is the Representation of the People Bill, which includes a cap on donations "by overseas contributors".

Its first reading in the House of Commons was back in February, months before the £72m of donations to Reform UK this weekend.

It proposes an annual cap of £100,000 for overseas donations, which would apply retrospectively from 25 March this year.

Peers aren't voting at this specific stage - the bill's second reading - but can debate the bill's key principles and flag any concerns or changes that might be needed.

After the second reading the bill heads to committee stage, where members can discuss any possible amendments.

Image source, Reuters

Richard Tice says he has spoken to neither Ben Delo nor Christopher Harborne about Reform UK's policy on cryptocurrency regulation.

Nigel Farage and Tice met with the Bank of England last year after the party leader accused it of "turning their back" on cryptocurrencies.

Reform also pledged to make the UK a "premier hub" for cryptocurrency innovation through a pilot scheme in which designated financial institutions would be exempted from some crypto rules.

Tice tells Radio 4's Today programme he has "no idea" if Nigel Farage has spoken to either of the donors on the topic, adding: "I'm not his executive assistant responsible for every single conversation he has."

The deputy leader of Reform was asked whether Harborne, a significant shareholder of crypto firm Tether, would gain money if the party could convince the Bank to change its policy on crypto.

Tice responded by saying the meeting with the Bank was all "above board".

When asked if the two donors have already got “everything they want” from Reform through the party lobbying the BoE to change its policy and cut taxes on cryptocurrency, Tice responds by saying such an analysis is “completely wrong”.

The deputy leader adds he and Farage met with the BoE governor Andrew Bailey a year ago and the pair’s donation happened “very very recently”.

Asked if the donations were “pure coincidence”, Tice says he has been criticising Bailey for his “failed policy” on quantitative easing for two and a half years.

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice is pressed on Radio 4's Today programme about when Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne moved to the UK.

Asked specifically about when Harborne returned, Tice replies: "I'm not familiar of every day of every week that these individuals spend in the country."

Tice says he knows Harborne has complied with both existing donation laws and the government's proposed legislation.

Regarding Delo, Tice says he believes the billionaire moved back to the UK "many many months ago".

Reform say they are confident proposed law changes around overseas donations will not affect the contributions by both men.

The former civil servant who recommended the new cap on party donations says he did so to stop people who chose to take their wealth abroad making "potentially game-changing donations into British politics".

Sir Philip Rycroft says the rules would limit donations from British voters living abroad to £100,000 and would retrospectively apply to donations going back to 25 March this year, when his review was published.

He also says it's his "understanding" that people would have to have been living in the UK for at least a full calendar year - i.e. from at least 25 March 2025 - to be considered a domestic donor (we're looking into the detail of the proposed law and will have more on that soon).

As said by our chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman, we do not know exactly when Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, the individuals behind Reform UK's £72m in donations, moved back to the UK.

Earlier this morning the deputy leader of Reform UK Richard Tice told BBC Breakfast he could not say the specific date that Delo moved back to the UK from Hong Kong - but said "everything's been done completely within the rules".

Image source, George Cracknell Wright

Cryptocurrency billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne each gave £36m to the party over two days last week.

The pair, who are British and have spent time living overseas, now share the record for the largest ever donation given to a UK political party.

Both men had already donated millions of pounds to Reform ahead of the announcement of their latest contributions.

Harborne wrote in the Telegraphon Saturday that Reform was a "start-up party" that lacked "the benefit of hundreds of years of patronage". Delo had written in the newspaper the day before that he wanted to enable Reform to put up a "fair fight" at the next election.

The Times reported in June that Harborne, who has been based in Thailand, had registered to vote in the UK, while Delo had told the Telegraph in April that he was moving back from Hong Kong.

Could Reform have to hand back its £72m?published at 07:40 BST

07:40 BST

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

The House of Lords was already going to be debating issues relating to political party donations today, but that debate now takes on an extra resonance, to say the least, because of the mega-donations to Reform UK from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.

One of the provisions in the law being debated today is a cap of £100,000 a year on donations from Britons living overseas, with that cap remaining in place for a year if somebody then returns to live in Britain.

If the law passes, those requirements will be backdated to 25 March.

Reform UK are confident that it will not affect the £72m meaning both Delo and Harborne – who had been living in Hong Kong and Thailand respectively – must have returned to the UK by 25 March. We do not know exactly when.

However, there are some within the Labour Party who want the government to now go further as this legislation makes its way through the House of Lords - potentially meaning that Reform UK might ultimately have to hand back this money.

Richard Tice tells BBC Breakfast the government is trying to protect itself from "a bit of competition" by changing the law around who can donate to political parties.

The deputy leader of Reform UK says he believes the party has done everything "completely in accordance" with the law.

He added it would show how "terrified" the government was of his party "if they completely change the way that we understand things are done in the United Kingdom and that they retrospectively introduce legislation in order to significantly disadvantage another political party that's merely trying to get on a level playing field".

He says the two donors behind the £72m Reform received are "very successful entrepreneurs" who are trying to "save the country from going bust".

"[The government is] trying to literally change the rules to suit their own narrative any day of the week at the drop of a hat and that's not the fair way, it's not the British way," he says.

Image source, Ben Delo Foundation

Reform UK's Deputy Leader Richard Tice says the government is trying to "retrospectively change the rules" on political donations ahead of a debate later today in the House of Lords.

This weekend, the party announced £72m in donations from two billionaires in 24 hours, days before a bill that could introduce a £100,000 cap on donations from British voters living abroad returns to Parliament.

The huge donations, worth £36m each, came from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, who are both British and have spent time living overseas.

"Everything has been done completely within the rules," Tice tells BBC Breakfast.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said the rule changes would apply retrospectively and anyone not complying with them would have "to return that money".

We'll have more from Tice, and reaction from elsewhere, shortly.