Joe Coughlan
Live reporter

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has defended two £36m donations his party received over the weekend, insisting they are "100% compliant with the law today".

The two record-breaking donations, totalling £72m, were given by Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne - two British cryptocurrency billionaires who have spent time living overseas.

The government had already proposed a bill to cap donations from Britons living overseas at £100,000, with that cap remaining in place for a year if somebody then returns to live in Britain.

We are not sure exactly when Delo and Harbone each moved back to the UK but Reform say they are confident proposed law changes around overseas donations will not affect the contributions by both men.

But with some Labour MPs pushing the government to go further on reforming political donations, there's a chance Reform UK could have to hand back this money, writes our chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman.

Meanwhile, data from the Electoral Commission analysed by BBC Verify shows Labour has received almost £43m from trade union donors since 2020, with union attitudes to donations now undergoing an "urgent rethink", writes political correspondent Iain Watson.

We are ending our live coverage for now, but you can read more on this topic in our news story.

Image source, PA Media

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner says Reform UK's cryptocurrency billionaire donors know a Reform government would act in their interest, "not in the public interest".

Speaking at the Trade Union Congress in Brighton, Rayner says "Nigel Farage's sugar daddies made their money in crypto but there's nothing cryptic about their motive".

"When these Reform donors say they want nothing, they mean it," she continues, "no workers' rights, no renters' rights, no social protections, no safety net, no regulation, nothing to stand in their way."

On the other hand, she says, donations from union members is "highly regulated" and "couldn't be more different from a couple of offshore billionaires trying to buy our democracy".

As a reminder, Labour regularly receives donations from trade unions - in an earlier post, BBC Verify examined how Labour received £5m in 2025, and £12m in 2024, an election year.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent, reporting from the Trades Union Congress in Brighton

Image source, Getty Images

The leader of the country’s second biggest union, Sharon Graham, tells me individual donations to political parties in the UK should be capped between £500,000 to £1m, in addition to the government's plan to cap donations made by UK citizens abroad at £100,000.

She says: "There is already a cap on what can be spent at an election, which surely means there must a cap on the money you can get as a political party."

But she doesn't think union donations should be similarly capped as individual trade unionists have to agree to opt in to making political contributions.

Image source, PA Media

The leader of the UK’s biggest trade union has defended donating to the Labour Party, while calling for political donations from overseas to be capped.

Unison represents workers in public service, and its General Secretary Andrea Egan tells the BBC "‘there shouldn’t be a cap" on donations by trade unions as they have "a long history with the Labour Party".

As it stands, the Representation of the People Bill making its way through Parliament does not propose a cap on political donations made by trade unions - of which Labour is the largest beneficiary.

Egan defends this, arguing: "Our money is clean money and it’s coming from the very people that the Labour government serve, and that is our librarians, our teaching support staff, our cleaners".

Labour, she says, was "founded by the trade union movement for the working people. So I think it’s absolutely right that our cleaners have a say in the politics of the Labour government."

On overseas donations, Egan asks: "‘Why should someone that doesn’t live in this country, that doesn’t participate in life here, why should they have a say in what happens for people that live in this country?"

Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo's donations came ahead of a debate in the House of Lords over political donations.

This afternoon, the Lords will discuss a bill seeking to change the law on donations to political parties from Britons living overseas, including a £100,000 cap backdated to 25 March.

As with other legislation, the Representation of the People Bill had to pass through Parliament in a number of stages, as detailed in the graphic below.

It is now being debated in the Lords, where it progresses through similar stages to those in the Commons. If the Bill is defeated in the Lords, it falls.

The Lords can also make their own amendments to the bill, in which case it will be passed back to the House of Commons to be voted on again.

If the law is approved by the Lords, it is sent to the monarch, who officially makes the bill law.

Image source, PA Media

A billionaire businessman who donated £500,000 to the Conservatives before the 2019 election has told the BBC he doesn't think the money handed to Reform "is healthy at all".

John Caudwell, the founder of Phones 4u, tells the BBC's Broadcasting House he donated to the Tories to avoid a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn in 2019. He then voted for Labour in 2024.

He says the £72m donations given to Reform by crypto-billionaires "puts a huge question mark" around the "strategy" behind the funding.

Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice has said his party is "merely trying to get on a level playing field" by courting donations.

Pushed by presenter Paddy O'Connell on whether this position is hypocritical given his own history of donations, Caudwell denies his argument is about politics.

"My half a million gave me no influence at all and nor should it," he replies.

He continues: "I don't know what the law should say, but there should be a definite change in the law... We shouldn't have very wealthy people making undue influence."

As we've been reporting, legislation looking at political donations is currently making its way through Parliament.

The Representation of the People Bill is set to cover changes including lowering the voting age as well as a cap on donations "by overseas contributors".

Earlier on, a No 10 spokesperson told reporters that the bill isn't the limit of the government's ambition for electoral reform on donations.

The spokesperson said further reforms will follow, adding that the government has asked the Electoral Commission to review spending limits, which it thinks are too high.

A new team is being established in government to look at how reform can go further on political funding, the spokesperson added.

Image source, PA Media

Energy tycoon Dale Vince is calling for donations to political parties to be completely banned in the wake of the Reform's £72m windfall.

Vince, who owns energy company Ecotricity and has donated more than £5.7m to Labour since 2020, tells the BBC's World at One he is not tempted to match Reform's record-breaking donations.

"We urgently need to reform donations, our whole political funding system is not fit for purpose," he says.

"I think we should ban donations and we should publicly fund our politics."

Donations spark suspicion among the public, Vince said, adding "elections should be fought on ideas not money".

Who are Labour’s biggest union donors?published at 14:21 BST

14:21 BST

By Daniel Wainwright

Labour has received almost £43m from trade union donors since 2020, according to the latest data from the Electoral Commission.

The public services union Unison and Unite provided almost half of that.

Unions also donate to individual MPs or campaign groups, but in much smaller amounts - less than £2m since 2020.

Added together over more than six years, Labour’s combined union funding is still less than the two £36m donations announced by Reform UK from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.

Who could donate more than the £100,000 under proposed new rules?published at 13:57 BST

13:57 BST

By Anthony Reuben

I’ve been talking to the Electoral Commission to try to understand the proposed changes being discussed.

If the new legislation passes it will mean that donations to political parties from people who are entitled to vote in the UK but who live overseas will be capped at £100,000 a year.

To be allowed to give more than £100,000 you would need to have been resident in the UK before 25 March this year.

If you were not resident by then, you wouldn’t be able to donate more than £100,000 until you had been resident in the UK for at least one calendar year. So if you became UK-resident in April you wouldn’t be able to do so until January 2028.

The Electoral Commission says, external that "normally a person is resident at an address for electoral purposes if it is their permanent home address", meaning the donor would have to persuade the commission that they had met that requirement to count as a resident.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham is understood to have cancelled engagements for Monday and Tuesday due to the death of his father Roy.

Burnham has previously spoken about his father, who had Alzheimer's, when explaining why he was so determined to reform adult social care in England.

We will be bringing you more on this story here.

What’s the link between Labour and the unions who give it money?published at 13:40 BST

13:40 BST

By Nicholas Barrett

Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice has criticised Labour’s stance on party donations in the wake of the £72m donated to his party at the weekend.

Tice told GB News earlier that Labour gets “tens of millions” every year from affiliated trade unions. “They [unions] demand more employment rights legislation, they get them. They demand ever higher public sector pay, they get it," Tice said.

According to the Labour Party’s website it “was formed out of the trade union movement to give working people their own political voice”.

It collects affiliate fees equivalent to £3 per member from trade unions. According to the Electoral Commission, the party said it got £6m from trade unions in 2023 and £12m in 2024, an election year. In 2025 the party said it received £5m from affiliated unions.

In terms of the other points Tice made, it is true that the 2025 Employment Rights Act - which beefed up some workers’ rights - included several measures the unions had called for.

Labour has increased public-sector pay for some workers, including teachers, nurses and resident doctors, but some unions are unhappy with current pay offers.

And when Labour put forward its manifesto at the election this would have been signed off by the party’s National Executive Committee, which includes representatives of the unions.

Reform UK party chair, Lee Anderson, tells the BBC that if the government wants to play "silly games" over capping or banning donations, a Reform UK government could ban trade union donations to the Labour Party.

Speaking to Vicki Young on Politics Live on BBC2 about the £72m donations, Anderson says: "We believe our donors are permissible, I spoke to our compliance team, and everything is above board and legal."

"Let's see what the House of Lords has to say [in debate] today.

"Let's see what Angela Rayner has to say about all this because she's not moaning about the millions of pounds they get in donations from the trade unions that we do know sway government policy making.

"We do know that they come with the begging bowl for pay rises for their union members who bankroll this Labour government."

He adds: "And you know what, if they want to play these silly games when we're in government we can play these silly games too. We can introduce legislation that stops trade unions donating to the Labour Party - see how they like it."

• We'll have more on how much the Labour Party receives from trade unions soon

Chris Mason
Political editor

The Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has told the BBC the two £36million donations his party received over the weekend are compliant with the law as it stands – but was more equivocal over whether they would comply with a change in the law currently making its way through parliament.

The British billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo – who have lived in Thailand and Hong Kong until recently – have made the donations.

The government was already seeking to change the law on donations to political parties from British expats, including a £100,000 annual cap backdated to the 25th of March this year.

"Both these donations are 100% compliant with the law today, of that there is no question whatsoever," Nigel Farage told me.

Ah, today, I pointed out.

What about the change in the law that could be coming?

"Retrospectively declaring donations illegal – that simply cannot be," Farage argued, adding "you cannot confiscate money that has been given legally within the law as it stands".

He said if the government did pursue this idea, Reform would advocate restricting the capacity of trades unions to give money to the Labour Party.

Unions argue there is a vast difference between millions of small donations – given via a union – and colossal donations from billionaires.

Some in the Labour Party want to see a blanket donations cap – regardless of whether a donor is based in the UK or overseas.

Nigel Farage told me he believed there should be no cap on donations from Britons based abroad or at home.

'Game changer': Unions consider how to respond to Reform's donationspublished at 12:57 BST

12:57 BST

Iain Watson
Political correspondent, reporting from the Trades Union Congress in Brighton

The £72m donations to Reform UK have provoked an urgent rethink of union attitudes to donations.

The TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak did the easy bit today - denouncing them as a "crisis for democracy" and urging the government go further on donations from UK citizens based abroad.

Legislation in the Lords would cap donations from abroad at £100,000 - the TUC wants this cap lowered to zero.

But there is as yet no consensus among the unions on whether there should be a cap on domestic donations. The leader of the Unite union, Sharon Graham, wants individual donations made by UK citizens resident in the UK capped.

Some smaller unions that don’t give money to Labour are in a similar place.

But there are other union leaders who are wary because if they travel down this road they fear the eventual destination is also a cap on the amount of money they can donate to Labour.

Or worse still - a future, less sympathetic, government attempting to halt another source of funding to the party - "affiliation fees", which give unions a direct say on Labour’s ruling National Executive.

So behind closed doors, discussions are going on here in Brighton over how to respond to the Reform bombshell.

Sources say those huge donations were a "game changer" - in other words unions have to work out a way of limiting donations from big donors while somehow protecting their own ability to fund Labour.

Whether that would pass the political "smell test" remains to be seen.

Joe Coughlan
Live reporter

Just joining the page? Here's a recap of the day's top lines...

This morning, Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice accused the government of trying to "change the rules to suit their own narrative" through plans to cap foreign donations to UK political parties.

That came after Reform announced two separate £36m donations from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne this weekend - two British cryptocurrency billionaires who have spent time living overseas, which Tice defended as being "completely in accordance" with the law. He also said his party is "merely trying to get on a level playing field".

The government had already outlined a law to introduce a £100,000 cap on donations from Britons living overseas - the bill is passing through Parliament, and the House of Lords is set to discuss later this afternoon.

The cap would come into force retrospectively from 25 March this year. It remains unclear when exactly Delo and Harborne moved back from Hong Kong and Thailand respectively, our chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman writes - but Reform insist the donations would be legal, even if the law is changed.

The two largest donations ever to be given to a UK political party have been criticised by Reform's political opponents as well as union representatives.

A short time ago, Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, branded the donations a "crisis for our democracy" - and rejected comparisons between them and the millions of pounds donated to the Labour Party via trade unions.

Stay with us for more news and analysis from Westminster and beyond this afternoon...

Image source, TUC

Paul Nowak also accused Reform of being a "party for sale" in response to the record donations.

"Tell me why two cryptocurrency billionaires have donated £72m to Reform to in just two days," the TUC leader said.

Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice told the BBC this morning that the donations had been made "completely within the rules", and that both donors had not demanded anything.

"There'll be nothing given in return," he said.

Nowak said that if people do not live in Britain and pay taxes in Britain, they should not "meddle" in British politics.

The two donors, Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, are both British and have spent time living overseas. BBC News has been told both have returned to the UK.

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, has branded the combined £72m donations from crypto billionaires to Reform UK as a "crisis for our democracy".

Speaking at the TUC's annual congress in Brighton he criticised the donations and rejected comparisons between them and the sums of money donated to the Labour Party by trade unions, saying "we cannot allow our political system to be captured by corporate interests".

"Let no one tell you there is any similarity, any similarity, between care workers chipping in a few quid a year through their union and a party bought and paid for by billionaires," he told the conference.

Reform says the two £36m donations are "entirely within the law" and put it on a level pitch with longstanding parties.

The party's deputy Richard Tice told BBC's Breakfast programme today the two donors were "very successful entrepreneurs" who were trying to "save the country from going bust" without making any demands.

"There'll be nothing given in return," he said.

Image source, George Cracknell Wright/LNP/BEN DELO FOUNDATION

Christopher Harborne

• Harborne is a British cryptocurrency investor and aviation entrepreneur
• He studied engineering at Downing College, Cambridge
• Harborne had been based in Thailand for two decades - and has been reported to hold Thai citizenship by multiple media outlets. Reform says Harborne has returned to the UK, though its deputy Richard Tice was this morning not able to say when
• Harborne previously gave large sums to the Conservatives under Boris Johnson's leadership, as well as Reform's predecessor, the Brexit Party, in 2019 and 2020

Ben Delo

• Delo attended a state comprehensive in Oxfordshire before studying mathematics and computer science at Worcester College, Oxford
• He moved to Hong Kong in 2012 and two years later founded BitMex, a cryptocurrency trading platform. Reform's Tice said this morning he believed Delo had returned to the UK "many months ago"
• Delo was one of the youngest signatories of The Giving Pledge in 2019, promising to give away the majority of his wealth during his lifetime. He says he has donated more than £100m to a range of causes
• Last year, he was given an unconditional pardon by US President Donald Trump over a breach of anti-money laundering laws at BitMex, to which he had pleaded guilty in 2022

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

The prime minister has previously expressed desires to cap the value of donations to political parties, having said "there should be a cap" in an email seen by the BBC.

While campaigning as Labour's candidate in the Makerfield by-election, Andy Burnham was asked in an email exchange with Shaun Bowler, the founder of grassroots campaign WakeUpGB, what his view on capping donations was.

In one email, Burnham said a donations cap "would guard against the perception of any one party being unduly influenced or swayed by one person or organisation".

"As to the level, I think that would have to be subject to wider review of political funding but my gut feeling would suggest somewhere in the region of £500k," Burnham wrote.