Nigel Farage's Reform UK party has received a major financial injection of £9 million from Christopher Harborne, a prominent investor in cryptocurrency, defence, and aviation fuel. This substantial cash donation, revealed in the latest Electoral Commission data, significantly bolsters the party's war chest ahead of its autumn conference.
A History of High-Value Political Backing
This is not Harborne's first foray into large-scale political financing. The intensely private businessman was previously one of the single biggest donors in UK politics when he gave more than £10 million in separate payments to Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, funding its campaign for the 2019 general election.
His financial support for prominent Brexit figures has continued since. Harborne subsequently donated £1 million to the office of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson after he left Downing Street, even accompanying Johnson on a trip to Ukraine. In January of this year, he also provided £28,000 to cover Nigel Farage's costs for attending Donald Trump's inauguration.
The Donor's Profile and Broader Financial Landscape
Christopher Harborne, who also goes by the Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit, began his career as a management consultant and lived in Thailand for around two decades. His investment portfolio includes stakes in defence technology firm Qinetiq and aviation-fuel producer AML Global.
The publication of the Electoral Commission's quarterly data placed Reform UK's fundraising in sharp relief. The figures showed that, overall, Reform received more than £10 million in donations during the period. This outstripped the almost £7 million given to the Conservative Party and the approximately £2.5 million donated to the Labour Party.
Scrutiny on Crypto and Calls for Reform
While Reform UK made headlines earlier this year by becoming the first political party to announce it would accept donations in cryptocurrency, Harborne's £9 million contribution was made in traditional cash. Nevertheless, the revelation comes amid ongoing government consideration of whether to ban cryptocurrency donations due to difficulties in tracking their provenance.
Jackie Killeen, Director of Regulation at the Electoral Commission, commented on the transparency of the UK's political finance system. "We know that voters are interested in where parties get their money from," Killeen stated. "This quarterly publication is an important part of delivering this information for voters. However, we know there are parts of the system that need strengthening, and we have been calling for changes to the law for some time."
Killeen added that the UK government's proposed reforms to the political finance regime could potentially improve donation controls and help ensure public confidence, pledging to work with ministers to ensure any changes are evidence-based and practical.
