Crypto billionaires face 12-month block on political donations over £100,000

Crypto billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo will face restrictions to making multimillion pound political donations for a year after moving back to the UK under strengthened legislation returning to parliament this month.

The Observer understands that changes to the representation of the people bill will prevent overseas voters who have returned to the UK from donating more than £100,000 for the first 12 months after they relocate. The move will apply retrospectively from 25 March this year, meaning any sums above £100,000 donated since that day would have to be returned.

Harborne, who is based in Thailand, has donated £15m to Reform since the 2024 general election. He was restored to the electoral roll in June, registering his address at a farmhouse in Hampshire. Delo, who has said he is moving back to the UK from Hong Kong, gave £4m in the first quarter of this year. It is not known whether the two men have made further donations that have not yet been declared.

The representation of the people bill, which is intended to strengthen the UK’s electoral system against foreign interference and introduce votes for 16-year-olds, returns to the Commons for its final stages on 14 July.

On Monday ministers are expected to give a statement to the House formally adopting in full the recommendations made by senior civil servant Philip Rycroft in a review of foreign influence, which has informed the legislation.

A government source said: “If you return to the UK, you will be subject to the cap for a year, so people cannot just start donating from day one of being back here. This will stop people dotting in and out and donating.

“This is not about which people are donating. It’s about ensuring the British state can find out where the money came from and if it cannot, that leaves us open to foreign interference.”

But Steve Goodrich from Transparency International said that implementing a one-year ban was “tinkering around the edges” and instead called for a cap on any donations, criticising what he called an “overly complicated solutions focused on one man”. It is understood backbenchers are planning to table an amendment calling for a universal cap of £100,000.

It is understood that all donors will have to sign a formal declaration confirming their contribution was not converted from crypto, in a further bid to protect British politics from potential foreign interference. False declarations carry the possibility of a criminal conviction and an unlimited fine, or up to a year in prison.

This builds on the existing moratorium on donations made in crypto and is an attempt to tackle the issue further “upstream” to make the origins of donations traceable. It follows The Observer’s reporting that Reform had used a payments processor to convert crypto donations into cash before they were accepted.

Plans to link corporate donations to revenues rather than profits are thought to have been revised in the face of criticism from the Electoral Commission and others. The bill is now expected to insist companies must demonstrate in their company accounts that they have been profitable for at least one year in the past five before they can donate, to prevent shell companies being used to funnel foreign cash into the system.

There will also be a new requirement for all candidates who stand in elections to make a declaration of any donations or gifts received in the previous 12 months.

In the wake of the undeclared £5m Harborne gave to Nigel Farage prior to the 2024 general election, backbenchers are expected to demand that these disclosures are required retrospectively for anyone who is elected, which would force sitting MPs to declare all gifts or donations received before entering parliament, potentially flushing out other sums.

Officials are also considering whether new parties should have to declare the origins of funds held when they register, which may also become retrospective. In March, Restore Britain registered as a new political party with assets of nearly £2.6m, the origins of which are unknown.

Meanwhile, today Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, will call for the bill to impose new legal duties on major social media platforms during election periods, arguing that platforms should be treated like broadcasters.

“The biggest influence on what many voters see during election campaigns is not a TV news bulletin – it’s social media feeds decided by opaque algorithms, where falsehoods, deepfakes and coordinated mis and disinformation can spread at alarming speed with real world consequences,” she said.

The Rycroft review touched on social media, warning that “the government does not do enough to inform the public about the nature of the intent of hostile foreign actors and how that can infect their social media feeds”, recommending an increase in resources and prioritisation in tackling issues posed by these channels.

Photograph by Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images