Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party secured 9 million pounds ($12 million) from billionaire cryptocurrency investor and aviation entrepreneur Christopher Harborne in the third quarter of this year, the UK Electoral Commission said on Thursday, one of the largest political donations in British history.
The contribution from Harborne, an aviation entrepreneur and technology investor, was just shy of a record 10 million-pound donation to the Conservative Party in 2022. It is the largest ever single donation by a living person to a British political party.
Harborne, who is British but lives in Thailand, has previously given large sums to the Conservatives under Boris Johnson’s leadership, as well as Reform’s predecessor the Brexit Party in 2019 and 2020.
It helped put Reform in the top position for political donations in the third quarter, receiving a total of 10.5 million pounds while the Conservative Party received 7 million pounds, and the governing Labour Party received 2.6 million pounds, the Commission said.
It is the first quarter since last year’s general election that Reform has received more in donations than the Conservatives. UK political parties are required to report all donations above £11,180 to the Electoral Commission.
Christopher Harborne’s Previous Donations
In 2019–2020, Christopher Harborne donated more than £13.7 million to The Brexit Party (which later became Reform UK), making him the party’s largest donor.
Between 2001 and 2022 he also contributed to the Conservative Party (UK) (Tories) and in 2022, he made a £1 million donation to the private office of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, one of the largest personal political donations recorded in recent UK history.