Reform UK gets another £4m from crypto billionaire pardoned by Donald Trump

Reform UK has been given a further £4m from the British crypto billionaire Ben Delo, with the party saying it is confident the formerly Hong Kong-based businessman will not be caught by the new overseas donor cap.

Delo, who was convicted in the US in 2022 for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business before being pardoned by Donald Trump, has previously given £4m to Reform in January.

His £8m in gifts show the rise of Reform’s mega-donors and make him the party’s second biggest contributor after Thailand based crypto investor Christopher Harborne who has given £15m to the party since the last election, as well as £5m to Farage personally before May 2024.

According to new donation figures from the Electoral Commission, Harborne did not give any money in the second quarter of the year and neither did the billionaire Sasan Ghandehari, who recently pledged to give millions.

Harborne and Ghandehari could potentially be caught by the donor cap applied since March this year, which states donors must be on the UK domestic electoral register for at least 12 months to avoid being subject to a £100,000 a year annual cap.

Delo had been expected to come under the cap after writing in the Telegraph that he had made his first donation since the start of the year, before the government’s cap on donations to political parties by British citizens living abroad.