Bitcoin billionaires give Nigel Farage’s Reform UK £72m in 48 hours

London: Cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne says he has donated £36 million ($67.9 million) to Britain’s anti-immigration Reform UK, matching an already record contribution to Nigel Farage’s party a day earlier as it prepares for the next election.

The donation gives the veteran Brexit campaigner’s party £72 million from two donors in less than 48 hours at a time when it is confronting allegations about irregularities in its funding, which it denies. The donations come amid a resurgence in right-wing politics across Europe since the re-election of US President Donald Trump.

The figure exceeds what either the Labour Party or the Conservatives spent during last year’s election campaign, according to Electoral Commission figures. The money will help Reform, whose lead in opinion polls has slipped over the funding allegations, work to win over voters before the next election, which is due by 2029.

Harborne, already Reform’s biggest donor, disclosed the contribution in a Telegraph newspaper article on Saturday, saying fellow crypto investor Ben Delo’s pledge a day earlier had inspired him to match it.

“What do I expect in return for my donations? Nothing. No peerage, no policy change, just a party that is ready for government,” Harborne wrote in the article.