Nigel Farage's Reform UK political party has received a historically large financial contribution of £9 million from Christopher Harborne, an entrepreneur and cryptocurrency investor, in August, effectively propelling the party's total fundraising efforts significantly past those of both the Labour and Conservative parties. This substantial sum represents the most significant single donation ever given to a UK political party by a living individual. Harborne, who was born in Britain but resides in Thailand, is recognized as an aviation entrepreneur and a crypto investor. He had previously been a major financial backer of Farage’s former political organization, the Brexit Party—Reform's predecessor—with large donations in 2019 and 2020, though he had not provided cash funding to the current party until recently. According to data released by the Electoral Commission on Thursday, Reform UK accumulated a total of £10.3 million in cash donations during the third quarter of the year, while the Conservatives secured £4.5 million and Labour received only £1.9 million, reports The WP Times with reference to the Financial Times.
Harborne is the founder of the aviation fuel enterprise AML Global and is also a key investor in Tether, which issues the largest stablecoin, and its affiliated crypto exchange, Bitfinex. Furthermore, he holds the position of the largest shareholder in the British defence company Qinetiq, which currently maintains contracts with the UK government. Although Reform UK has consistently shown a lead in opinion polls since April, the party has traditionally struggled to attract major funding from donors until this period. The July to September period is the first quarter since the 2024 general election in which Reform has managed to outpace the Conservatives in terms of total donations received.
During the same quarter, Reform also received an additional £500,000 from Nick Candy, the party's treasurer, and £100,000 from William Alan McIntosh, the founder of the investment firm Emerald Investment Partners. Despite facing a drop to third place in the polls under the leadership of Kemi Badenoch, the Conservatives still maintained financial backing from some established donors, notably receiving £1 million from video games tycoon Jeremy Elliott San in the third quarter, bringing his total contribution to the party this year to £3 million. Harborne himself had previously donated to the Conservative Party, providing them with £1.8 million between 2003 and 2022.
The aviation entrepreneur has now publicly declared a total of £24.5 million in donations to political parties throughout his career, with £22.7 million of that sum being directed towards Reform UK. He also made a separate £1 million donation to The Office of Boris Johnson Ltd in November 2022 after the former Conservative leader stepped down as prime minister. While no other living donor has equalled the size of Harborne's latest contribution, it is noteworthy that Lord John Sainsbury bequeathed £10 million to the Conservative Party in his will in 2022. The Labour Party continued its reliance on funding from trade unions throughout the third quarter, receiving approximately £750,000 from Unite and £450,000 from the GMB union.
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