Reform UK faces scrutiny over record £72m crypto donations

Reform UK has received a record £72 million in donations from two cryptocurrency billionaires, prompting the government to warn that new retrospective rules on overseas donations could force the party to return the money. The donations, each worth £36 million, were made by Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne over the weekend, marking the largest individual contributions to a British political party in history. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner indicated that the government is considering a broader cap on political donations and that new rules on overseas funding, backdated to March, could apply to these gifts. "It's a really live question for us about making sure that our democracy is about the people and them having a choice, and not about people with billions of pounds being able to buy their way in," Rayner told broadcasters. The government's Representation of the People Bill, currently before Parliament, proposes capping donations from British citizens living overseas or recent returnees at £100,000 per year. The relevant provisions are intended to be retrospective. Whether these specific donations are affected depends on the donors' residency status under the new law.