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  "path": "/2026/06/04/reform-rakes-7-000-000-just-two-crypto-billionaires-three-months-28644769/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-04T12:13:42.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "News",
    "Politics",
    "Cryptocurrency",
    "Nigel Farage",
    "Reform UK",
    "here",
    "named the sixth-richest person in the UK",
    "Westminster",
    "Conservative Party",
    "Keir Starmer",
    "Bitcoin",
    "Liz Truss",
    "Kwasi Kwarteng",
    "check our news page",
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  "textContent": "Nigel Farage’s party has received millions from Christopher Harborne, left, and Ben Delo, right (Picture: Getty/London News Pictures/PA)\n\nReform UK bagged £7 million from a pair of crypto billionaires in the first three months of this year, official donation figures show.\n\nThe biggest single sum – £3m, which was accepted by the party on January 23 – came from Christopher Harborne, one of the wealthiest people in the UK.\n\nHarborne was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year for a £5m gift he handed to Nigel Farage in January 2024, a few months before Farage returned to politics as leader of Reform UK.\n\nThat money is now at the centre of a parliamentary standards investigation over whether the Clacton MP should have declared it.\n\nHarborne’s latest donation is included in the Electoral Commission’s rundown of all donations worth more than £11,180 to British political parties in the first quarter of 2026.\n\nIt also shows Ben Delo, another cryptocurrency billionaire, gave £4m to Farage’s party in two portions of £2 million in January and March.\n\n##  Everything is changing, all the time\n\nCut through political noise and understand how the Westminster chaos actually affects your life with Metro's politics newsletter Alright, Gov? Sign up here.\n\nThe £7m donated by the two men exceeds the total amount given to the Conservatives (£6m) and Labour (£4.1m) in the first three months of the year.\n\nIt also made up more than a third of the £9,936,393 received by Reform over that period.\n\n##  Who are Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo?\n\nChristopher Harborne snatched the record for the biggest individual donation from a living person to a British political party in history last year, when he handed £9m to Reform.\n\nAccording to the Sunday Times Rich List published last month, he’s got plenty of cash to go around. He was named the sixth-richest person in the UK with £18.2 billion.\n\nHowever, his real wealth may go beyond that, as some is held overseas or could not be identified by the newspaper’s researchers.\n\nWhile living and working in Thailand for more than 20 years, Harborne has invested in financial companies including Tether, the crypto platform with an estimated valuation of roughly $200 billion.\n\nBen Delo, similarly, owes his billions to working in the cryptocurrency business.\n\nThe 42-year-old, who was based in Hong Kong before returning to the UK this year, co-founded the trillion-dollar crypto trading platform BitMEX in 2014.\n\nBut in 2022, he pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by ‘willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain’ an anti-money laundering programme at the exchange.\n\nDelo was sentenced to 30 months’ probation, but Donald Trump pardoned him last year.\n\nOverall, UK-registered political parties accepted donations worth £24,716,802 in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of 214% from the same period last year.\n\nOlly Buston, the chief executive of campaign group Clean Up Westminster, said: ‘When a tiny number of wealthy donors can spend millions promoting the politicians and causes they favour, it’s no surprise people feel politics is rigged against them.\n\n‘The rich and powerful shouldn’t be able to buy themselves a louder voice in our democracy.’\n\nThe top donor to the Conservative Party was a woman named Mary V Doran, whose £1.1m donation was accepted in February.\n\nPerennial political donors Lord David Sainsbury and Gary Lubner jointly provided the top individual donations to Labour, both worth £550,000 and accepted on March 6.\n\nNigel Farage speaking at a Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas last year (Picture: Ian Maule/Getty Images)\n\nEarlier this year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced he would be banning cryptocurrency donations to political parties following a review of foreign financial interference.\n\nThe move was one of 17 recommendations made by ex-top civil servant Philip Rycroft in his report.\n\nAt that point, Reform UK was the only British political party to have accepted donations in cryptocurrency.\n\nFarage is a shareholder in the British Bitcoin company Stack, which is chaired by Liz Truss’s former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, and the Reform leader appeared in a video promoting a £2m crypto purchase by the firm.\n\nSince his return to Parliament in 2024, he has emerged as one of the leading advocates for cryptocurrency among British politicians.\n\n******Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.******\n\n**For more stories like this,** check our news page.\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
  "title": "Reform rakes in £7,000,000 from just two crypto billionaires in three months"
}