Reform top recipient of political donations in first quarter of year with £9m

David Lynch, Press Association Political Correspondent

Reform UK received £9 million from donors in the first quarter of the year, the largest amount given to any political party in that period, the latest data reveals.

A widely reported £3m donation from Thailand-based crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne was the largest single donation Nigel Farage’s party received between January and March 2026, figures from the Electoral Commission show.

The election watchdog’s data also shows that Ben Delo, another cryptocurrency magnate based in Hong Kong, donated £4m to Reform in two £2m lump sums in January and March.

David Grainger, a biotechnology executive and venture capitalist, gave some £1,150,000 to Reform in a series of donations over the period.

Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative Party had the second-largest amount in donations in the first quarter of the year, having received £6m.

The single largest donation was from someone called Mary V Doran, who gave the Tories £1.1m.

Labour received some £4m over the same period, with Lord David Sainsbury and Gary Lubner among its largest donors.

They both gave Labour £550,000, while the party also received substantial funding from affiliated unions including Unite and Usdaw.

Sir Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats received some £2.9m in donations in the same period, while the Green Party was given around £300,000.

The latest data on donations to political parties comes after Labour clamped down on the amount that foreign-based donors can give to political parties.

Donors based abroad now face a cap of £100,000 a year on the amount they can give to political parties.

The cap, introduced at the end of March, followed scrutiny of the £12m donated to Reform by Mr Harborne over the course of 2025.

Reform leader Mr Farage has insisted the billionaire does not want anything in return for his donations.

Mr Farage is also facing questions about a £5m gift from Mr Harborne he received in the months before announcing he would stand as an MP in the 2024 general election.

He has variously said the gift was to pay for his personal security, and that it was a reward for his years of campaigning for Brexit.

Parliament’s standards commissioner is currently investigating whether Mr Farage should have registered the gift as an interest.

Mr Delo, the other crypto-billionaire featuring among Reform’s latest political donations, has said he will move back to the UK from Hong Kong so he will not be subject to the cap on donations for foreign donors.