Reform given huge donations by crypto currency billionaires

Cryptocurrency self interests and opportunity for money laundering are of concern. The fact that the majority of Reform's donations of such huge sums form 2 Cryptocurrency businessmen, Harborne and Delo, one of which convicted of money laundering but then pardoned by Trump (what an accolade!) is of further concern.

Will be interesting to see how the Mycroft report progresses through parliament- which is clear, if passed those rules will apply retrospectively to easier this year- before the 2 mega most recent donations from Harborne and Delo.

A turning point for funding in British politics.

Interesting substack piece from Fraser Nelson on this, referring to what James Orr said in the Verbatim undercover investigation:

“We just don’t have British resident donors or British entities that would support us,” Reform UK’s James Orr told the undercover reporter, later broadcast on Ch4. “That’s the grim reality.” And a bit of an embarrassment. The ‘party of the people’ gets negligible money from the people. The table below (in the link) shows small donations - of less than £10k - for the first half of the year. Without the millionaire donors, Orr is right: Reform UK is simply not a cause the people want to support financially.

What is happening now with crypto donations is what has been happening in the USA.

Nelson discusses how these mega-donations could both help Reform - paying for the publishing of a tsunami of propaganda that supports the party - or work against them to encourage tactical voting. As he points out, Reform lose every two horse race. And that was back in February before the slew of allegations that show Reform mired in sleaze and the recent events at conference.

frasernelson.substack.com/p/farage-may-be-about-to-discover-what

Encouraging too is this piece in today’s Observer that suggests the legislation that is currently going through Parliament should make these latest donations illegal:

Florence Eshalomi, the communities minister, told the House of Commons on 2nd September that the cap would also be applied retrospectively to any donations from overseas electors received since the measures were announced on 25 March 2026. She said this would “prevent bad actors from funnelling money into our elections in advance of the change in the law.”

archive.is/20260913053642/https://observer.co.uk/news/politics/article/crypto-tycoons-72m-donation-to-reform-uk-could-be-illegal#selection-769.0-769.358

If that turns out to be the case, brace for an avalanche of wailing and legal challenges.

I watched Laura Kuenssberg this morning. Apart from Jenrick the other politicians were concerned about huge donations.
If they can keep the money from the crypto billionaires they will have a huge advantage with their advertising campaign. Remember the bus with 350 million for the NHS during Brexit campaign?
I question what these people giving vast amounts want. They would have far too much influence over how our country is run.

Think back to Trump's second inauguration. All the people clustered closely around him were the likes of Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, etc, etc.

The biggest money people on the planet. What does that say about American politics? And it looks like the UK will go the same way, inevitably.

Regarding what crypto billionaires might gain from a Reform government AGAA4 … here’s your answer:

“Reform UK’s proposed Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill says Reform would make the UK a leading crypto hub and introduce:

*10% capital-gains tax on crypto gains, substantially below the higher CGT rates that can currently apply.

*A two-year regulatory sandbox in which selected crypto/blockchain businesses would receive temporary relief from some financial regulations.

*Greater institutional adoption of crypto, including a proposed Bitcoin Reserve Fund at the Bank of England.

*Allowing taxes to be paid in cryptocurrency.

*A generally “light-touch” supervisory approach, while retaining core anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing safeguards.

Nigel Farage has also been very publicly pro-crypto. He has argued that Britain should become a major global crypto hub and has opposed the Bank of England developing a state-backed digital currency (“Britcoin”).

So, Reform’s policy is clearly to loosen regulation and taxation around crypto and encourage much greater adoption, rather than maintain the more cautious regulatory approach favoured by the UK establishment.”