Labour calls for probe into Reform's crypto donations

Labour wants the electoral watchdog to investigate donations to Reform UK, claiming that the party has “serious questions to answer” over cryptocurrency donations.

- DAVID MADDOX POLITICAL EDITOR

Labour Party chair Anna Turley wrote to the Electoral Commission after the body's quarterly report revealed that Nigel Farage's party had secured a second multimillion-pound donation from a Thai- based billionaire, boosting the party's war chest ahead of the crucial May elections.

The £3m donation from Christopher Harborne, a crypto investor who helped bankroll Brexit, came on top of the record £9m he gave to Mr Farage's party last year. Reform received a total of £5.5m in donations in the last quarter of 2025 - more than any other party, according to figures released by the Electoral Commission.

Ms Turley has now raised concerns that the party did not register any cryptocurrency donations despite Mr Farage claiming on 22 October last year that his party had received “a couple” of donations in that form.

If cryptocurrency donations are above the threshold of £500, they must be reported to the Electoral Commission as a non-cash donation, along with their value at the time they were received. The deadline for declaring donations received in the fourth quarter of 2025 was 30 January 2026.

Ms Turley told The Independent: "Nigel Farage has serious questions to answer on crypto donations to Reform. After Farage said Reform would take crypto donations last May, and bragged about having received crypto cash in October, not a single donation has been declared. Farage needs to say why."

She added: "This raises alarming questions about transparency, and Farage must come clean urgently. I will be writing to the Electoral Commission to ensure that the public can have confidence that everything is above board with Reform's declarations." Ms Turley also flagged that a link used by Reform for crypto donations takes donors to a platform called Radom, which is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.