The man behind a record-breaking donation to Reform UK is one of several individuals and businesses based overseas who have given large sums to the party in recent years.
Last week, it was revealed that Christopher Harborne, a low-profile British-Thai businessman and crypto investor, had given Nigel Farage’s party £9m, the largest single donation in British political history.
Harborne had previously backed the Brexit party in the run-up to the 2019 election, as well as covering the cost of Farage’s travel to attend Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January, but this latest donation is by far his largest.
In total, Harborne has given Farage and his party £19.2m.
The crypto billionaire, who is based in Thailand and controls up to 12% of the shares in the company behind the Tether stablecoin, is a mysterious –and generous – man. In 2022, he gave £1m to Boris Johnson – at the time, the largest single donation to a British MP. Now he appears to be putting all his chips on Farage.
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Crypto investor Christopher Harborne has donated £19.2m to Reform
Harborne also covered the cost of Farage’s travel to Washington in January to attend Donald Trump’s second inauguration
In late September, after the donation had been received, Farage raised the subject of Tether in an interview with LBC. He called the Bank of England “out of touch” and “a dinosaur” for suggesting limits on the amount of stablecoins that individuals can hold. Farage has long backed cryptocurrency.
Harborne is responsible for 59% of Reform’s total donations since the last election, according to analysis by The Observer. But he is not the only backer to have sizable interests – or to be based – offshore. About 66% of all the money donated to Reform during this parliament came from donors who are resident overseas or with offshore interests overseas.
• British private equity investor Roger Nagioff, who has given Reform £100,000 while residing in Monaco.
• Evans Management Ltd is behind another £100,000. One person of significant control (PSC), Helga Ingeborg Evans, is a German citizen based in Monaco. The other is a Jersey-based company called JTC Plc.
• Hepburn Bio Care Ltd, which lists Monaco-based Margaret Valerie Hepburn as the PSC, gave £40,000. The Monaco connection is noteworthy given the unpaid advisory role within Reform held by Monaco-based Briton George Cottrell.
His UK-based mother, Fiona Cottrell, donated £250,000 to the party in February.
• According to the Electoral Commission the property company United Kingdom Sotheby's International Realty Ltd has given Reform UK £100,000. Its PSC, Girgi Azar, is listed as a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, and a UAE resident.
• Nova Venture Holdings, whose PSC is US citizen and resident Jacques Joseph Tohme, has given £50,000.
Meanwhile, Bassim Haidar, who appears on Companies House as an Irish citizen and recently told the Telegraph he was leaving the UK because of Labour’s changes to non-dom status, is behind £355,000 of donations and hospitality. This includes £55,000 to cover the cost of three flights for Farage to attend a “Helping a Hero” veterans’ party at Mar-a-Lago in Florida last month.
Farage’s register lists his own flight as costing nearly £20,000. While he says it was to attend a “speaking engagement and charity event”, he makes no reference to the event itself, where top-tier “presidential sponsorship” cost $250,000, and individual tickets were $5,000.
Reform UK was asked for comment.
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