UK to toughen up political donation rules in latest crackdown

Political donors will need to wait a year after returning to the U.K. before they can give more than $133,510 as part of a proposed crackdown on offshore political finance that threatens to hit Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K.

The U.K. government plans to introduce the measures that will also mean tougher checks for companies wanting to donate, assessing them against their post-tax profits rather than revenue to ensure they are legitimate U.K.-linked businesses, a government statement said on Monday.

The plans may affect the huge donations that are helping to fund Reform as it tries to end the dominance of the Labour and Conservative parties in Westminster. It is leading in national opinion polls, though the next general election is not due until 2029.

In the past year, the populist right-wing party has received multimillion-pound donations from cryptocurrency tycoons Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, according to Electoral Commission data.

Farage has been under scrutiny in recent months over a $6.7 million gift from Thai-based Harborne that he received before he re-entered politics at the 2024 election. Farageis facing a probe by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over whether a $6.7 million gift from Thai-based Harborne before he re-entered politics in 2024 broke rules on reporting benefits received in the 12 months before being elected.

In April, Delo announced in an opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph newspaper that he was moving back to the U.K. in order to “contribute more to Reform’s budget.”

Farage is facing fresh questions over his finances after the Sunday Times reported over the weekend that Farage did not declare benefits from George Cottrell in the year before he was elected. Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said on Sunday that “no rules have been broken whatsoever.”

“These tough new rules will shut down dodgy funding, stop foreign money influencing our elections and keep our democracy strong,” said Steve Reed, Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary. “British democracy is not for sale.”