Robert Jenrick has defended Reform UK’s £72m donations from two cryptocurrency billionaires, saying the party believes they are ‘entirely in line with the law’ and that he does not expect any of the money to be returned.
The party’s economic spokesman made the comments on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, addressing donations of £36m each from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, both British nationals who have spent time living overseas. The two donations now jointly share the record for the largest ever given to a UK political party.
Jenrick: donors ‘not buying anything’
Jenrick said the two donors were ‘not buying anything, they simply support our agenda’. He added that Delo had ‘actually returned to the UK, in part so that he can comply with the changes to the law’.
‘These two donations are entirely in line with the law as it is and, as far as we know, the law as it’s going to be in the future,’ Jenrick said. He did not rule out further government attempts to tighten restrictions, saying: ‘It might be that Angela Rayner or the government keep trying to change the law to make it even harder for people to donate to Reform, nothing would surprise me.’
The Reform UK £72m donations come amid a broader government push to restrict political funding from British expats. Ministers are seeking to introduce a £100,000 cap on donations from British citizens overseas, backdated to 25 March, as well as a separate limit of £100,000 in the year after a donor returns to the UK. Those measures were added to the Representation of the People Bill after MPs approved them this month. The bill still needs to be scrutinised in the House of Lords.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, who also appeared on the programme, declined to say whether the proposed changes would apply directly to Delo and Harborne. ‘I don’t know the individual circumstances of those donors,’ she said. Rayner said the proposed changes were ‘directly as a result’ of a review by former top civil servant Philip Rycroft, published on 25 March, and that the retrospective date reflected when the recommendations entered the public domain. She added that the government had written to the Electoral Commission to explore what further measures may be needed to protect democracy.
Police investigation and Farage scrutiny add to pressure on Reform
The row over the Reform UK £72m donations sits alongside a series of other scrutiny matters facing the party. Police announced an investigation into allegations that Reform broke foreign funding laws, following a broadcast by Channel 4 News, the BBC reported.
Harborne’s financial relationship with the party is longstanding. He previously gave a single donation of £9m to Reform, which at the time was the biggest single donation to a UK political party by a living person, according to the BBC.
Separately, Nigel Farage is under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner over whether he should have declared a £5m gift he received from Harborne ahead of the 2024 general election, the BBC has reported. That investigation adds a further layer of complexity to Reform’s relationship with one of its principal financial backers.
Jenrick’s defence of the Reform UK £72m donations signals the party intends to resist pressure to distance itself from either donor, even as the Representation of the People Bill continues its passage through Parliament.
