Politics
Reform are amassing foreign donors
On 5 March, the Electoral Commission published its records of political donations in the last quarter of 2025. And, surprise surprise, Reform UK has taken yet another massive crypto donation from Thai-based billionaire Christopher Harborne.
Last quarter’s £3m donation joins the record-breaking £9m that the cryptocurrency investor already gifted to the far-right party. Likewise, on top of the £3m, Reform also received a further £2.5m from other sources.
It appears the 1% know which way their bread is buttered.
Reform is in the pocket of the super rich
As the Independent pointed out, a great deal of Reform’s newfound fortune comes from former Tory donors fleeing Badenoch’s sinking ship:
The latest register of donations, released on Thursday, also showed that more Tory donors are giving money to Reform UK. This included construction equipment firm JCB, which has previously backed the Conservatives but this time gave £200,000 to both Reform and the Tories.
Isabel Goldsmith, the sister of former Tory minister Zak Goldsmith, also gave Reform £100,000.
Former Tory donor and high-profile Reform defector Nick Candy, a property developer, donated £240,000 to the party.
Commenting on the massive donations, a spokesperson for the far-right party said:
These figures show the extraordinary momentum behind Reform UK. Raising more money than any other party in 2025 proves that people are backing the party to deliver real change.
That’s an awfully strange way of phrasing ‘we promised to be a good little lap-dog for the billionaires’.
That £5.5m total puts Reform head and shoulders above any other party in terms of donations. For contrast, the Tories received £4.2m, the Lib Dems took almost £2.2m, and Labour were given £2m. Meanwhile, the Greens received just over £294k.
If you wanted a clearer demonstration of which parties are in the pockets of the super-rich (and which aren’t) – look no further.
Reform goes crypto
Speaking of shilling for the interests of the wealthy…
Back in May, Farage told the Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference that his party would launch a “crypto revolution”. On the same day, Reform announced that it would start accepting donations in crypto.
Then, in the very next financial quarter, Harborne’s major £9m donation to Reform rolled in on 1 August. It was the largest ever gift from a private individual to a political party.
At the time, the Canary highlighted that Harborne also donated millions to the Brexit Party in 2019, as well as to the Conservatives between 2001 and 2022. While Harborne is British, he’s now based in Thailand.
Sky News spoke to political donation expert professor Justin Fisher, who told them:
It exposes the fact that this is a person who is a British citizen but is able to influence British politics without being subject to the laws that any Reform government might bring in, any tax arrangements that a Reform might bring in.
This is foreign money by any other name.
When the crypto donation revelation surfaced, Farage insisted that Harbourne “wants nothing from me”.
Farage and the crypto lobby
Completely by coincidence, in January 2026, the Reform leader used his first ever meeting with Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey to shill for the crypto lobby.
The Reform leader reportedly criticised the Bank of England for imposing restrictions on cryptocurrencies. Instead, he urged that the UK follow Trump’s example in the US by lifting efforts to police crypto.
Likewise, he also tried to push one cryptocurrency – the Tether stablecoin, the value of which is pegged to the US dollar. In an interview with LBC Radio ahead of his first meeting with the Bank of England chief, Farage said:
I’m going to go tomorrow to say this. You know, Tether is a stablecoin. Stablecoins are the way which money goes from conventional currencies through into cryptocurrencies and back again. Tether is about to be valued as a $500bn company.
And, as luck would have it, Christopher Harbourne also just happens to be a major shareholder in Tether. Funny that, isn’t it?
Reform are not a party of the common man. They are not a friend of the everyday resident of the UK just trying to get by. As their donation history – and Farage’s flip-flopping talking points – makes clear, the party is wrapped around the finger of anyone they think will launch them to power.
Featured image via the Canary