The government's representation of the people bill returns to the House of Commons for its third reading this Tuesday, bundling measures like extending the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds and voter registration changes. However, due to the furor around Nigel Farage and his wealthy friends—such as Thailand-based crypto-investor Christopher Harborne, who gave Farage a £5m personal gift and donated over £22m to Reform UK—the headline measures now focus on big-money donations.
Government's legislative response
The government has implemented a moratorium on political donations in cryptocurrencies, which the Electoral Commission says present challenges in identifying donors. A new annual £100,000 limit on donations from British citizens abroad is included. Other amendments to the bill include checks on company donations by measuring profit and revenues, and a requirement for parliamentary candidates to declare donations above £2,230, though personal gifts remain exempt.
There is also a cap on donations from recent UK residents, limiting them to £100,000 in their first year. Labour backbenchers are preparing stronger amendments: Stella Creasy wants a universal cap at £100,000, others propose £1m, and Liam Byrne suggests a permanent ban on crypto donations.
The crypto elite and their influence
Farage spends time with a powerful class of high-rollers in crypto, often on the hard right, in London, New York, and jurisdictions like Montenegro, El Salvador, and Hong Kong. Their world includes support for the Trump administration and massive online transactions. Journalist Oliver Bullough, author of Everybody Loves Our Dollars, highlighted Tether, a stablecoin operation 12% owned by Harborne, which reported profits over $10bn in 2025. Bullough called it "the most profitable company per-employee that there has ever been," adding, "crypto is just the next one. It's just money being privatised."
Farage has praised Tether, saying, "Tether is about to be valued as a $500bn company. Stablecoins, crypto – this world is enormous. And I've been urging for years that London should embrace it." But he is a small fish compared to Donald Trump, who raked in over $1.4bn from crypto dealings last year. In the 2024 US election cycle, the crypto industry spent more than $245m, and has found around $190m to influence 2025 midterms, over a third of total corporate election spending.
Links to rightwing UK politics
Ben Delo, co-founder of BitMex, pleaded guilty in 2022 to failing to maintain an anti-money laundering programme, paid a $10m civil penalty, and was sentenced to 30 months' probation. He was pardoned by Trump last year. Delo made a £4m donation to Reform UK earlier this year and targets political correctness. He fits into the international elite lobbying for anarcho-capitalism through crypto. Farage calls the government's donation restrictions "communist country" stuff, while Delo damns them as "tinpot" and has pledged to move back to the UK from Hong Kong to get around them. "Let's build a war chest and win back our country," he says.
Implications for the UK
Amid the Clacton byelection farce, allegations about George Cottrell meeting Reform's office costs undeclared, and police questioning him and his mother, Farage's political stock may be plunging. But the new British right will survive, and its ties to crypto point to a UK where the state shrinks, London becomes a crypto capital, and the barrier between crime and business erodes. This would make Brexiters' "Singapore-on-Thames" look centrist. Crypto donations, if allowed, would make that nightmarish future more likely, contrary to the Faragists' anti-establishment jape—it is deadly serious.
