UK moves to cap donations after record right-wing crypto haul

One of the two cryptobillionaires bankrolling Reform UK was convicted in the U.S. for money laundering failures before being pardoned by President Donald Trump last year.MANCHESTER, England (CN) — The House of Lords opened debate Monday on a bill to cap foreign political donations and ban crypto contributions to political parties, days after Reform UK pocketed 72 million pounds ($97 million) from two cryptocurrency billionaires — the largest single donations in British political history.Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, both British men who have spent years living abroad, each gave 36 million pounds to Reform within two days, according to the Electoral Commission, which tracks political donations.The pair now share the record for Britain’s largest single donation; the previous record holder, businessman John Sainsbury, gave 10 million pounds to the Conservative Party in 2023.The Representation of the People Bill, which already cleared the House of Commons, Parliament’s elected lower chamber, would cap donations from British citizens living overseas at 100,000 pounds a year, backdated to March 25, and ban parties from accepting cryptocurrency as a donation outright.It reached its second reading Monday in the House of Lords, Parliament’s unelected upper chamber, where members debated legislation and flagged concerns.Sharon Taylor, a Labour minister for local government, described commuting past tradespeople and small-business owners on her way to work and said their votes count the same as those of “millionaires, crypto bros and industry magnates.”She said crypto assets pose a particular danger because they make it hard to trace who is really behind a donation.“That creates a risk that malign actors, including state actors, could seek to obscure the origin of the funds,” Taylor said.Jonathan Evans, a nonpartisan lawmaker and former head of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, backed the ban.He said cybercriminals favor crypto for ransom payments precisely because it is so hard to trace, and he called for a cap on trade union donations too, so no single source of money could tilt an election toward one party.Former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May said the bill still leaves a loophole: It would bar crypto donations to parties but not to individual candidates and does not address how donors could convert crypto into cash through exchanges before giving it away.“I would urge the government to look at this in particular,” she said.Reform leader Nigel Farage said the donations broke no laws.“You cannot confiscate money that has been given legally within the law as it stands,” he said. He warned if Labour pressed ahead with retroactive restrictions, Reform would push to limit trade unions’ ability to fund the Labour Party.Reform casts itself as an anti-establishment movement for ordinary voters, but much of its money has come from a small circle of extremely wealthy backers, including Delo, who was convicted in the U.S. in 2022 of failing to guard against money laundering at the crypto exchange he co-founded, BitMEX.Delo was sentenced to 30 months of probation and fined $10 million. The U.S. Justice Department said the exchange’s lax controls let customers under U.S. sanctions, including people in Iran, trade on the platform.Trump pardoned Delo in March 2025.Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, a federation representing millions of British workers, said the comparison is unfair.“Let no one tell you there is any similarity between care workers chipping in a few quid a year through their union and a party bought and paid for by billionaires,” Nowak told the trade group’s annual conference in Brighton on Monday.He called for a permanent ban on crypto and overseas donations and said the sums pouring into Reform posed a crisis for British democracy.According to the Electoral Commission, Labour got 12 million pounds from trade unions in 2024, an election year, and 5 million pounds in 2025.Donations to Reform have drawn police attention.London’s Metropolitan Police first opened a criminal probe into Reform’s finances over donations linked to Fiona Cottrell and her son, George Cottrell, a former Farage aide who was previously convicted of financial crimes in the U.S.The investigation was later widened following an undercover investigation by Channel 4, which reported that senior Reform officials discussed disguising foreign donations, which are illegal under British law.Parliament’s standards watchdog is separately investigating whether Farage failed to declare a gift of 5 million pounds from Harborne around the 2024 general election.The House of Lords will debate the bill in the coming weeks before it moves to a formal vote.Courthouse News reporter James Francis Whitehead is based in England.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads