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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK received a second major donation from businessman Christopher Harborne, taking the party’s fundraising beyond Labor and the Conservatives last year.
Harborne gave £3 million to Reform in November, adding to the £9 million donated in August, the largest donation by a living donor to a UK political party.
Harborne, an aviation entrepreneur and crypto investor, was born in Britain but has lived in Thailand for the past two decades. He gave large sums of money to Farage’s previous political vehicle, the Brexit Party, in 2019 and 2020.
According to Electoral Commission figures released on Thursday, Reform received a total of £5.5 million in cash donations in the fourth quarter of 2025, while the Conservatives attracted £2.3 million and Labor only £1.7 million.
Last year, Reform received a total of £18.5 million in cash donations, two-thirds of which came from Harborne, while the Tories took £13.4 million and Labor £8.2 million.
The latest mega-donation will bolster Farage’s war chest ahead of crucial Welsh, Scottish and local elections in May, when the populist party is hoping to win thousands of seats and take control of several councils, including London.
Although Reform is leading Labor and the Conservatives in opinion polls, with around 26 percent public support, its popularity has declined since the start of the year and is now at its lowest level since April 2025.
Harborne, the founder of aviation fuel company AML Global, is also an investor in Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin, and its sister crypto exchange Bitfinex. In Thailand he is known as Chakrit Sakunkrit.
In addition, he is the largest shareholder in British defense company Qinetiq, which has a contract with the UK government.
Harborne donated a total of £10 million to the Brexit Party before and after the 2019 general election as Farage placed intense pressure on Westminster to fully withdraw from the EU.
During the fourth quarter of last year, Reform received £250,000 from biotech entrepreneur David John Grainger and £250,000 from double glazing entrepreneur Gary Dutton.
It also received £100,000 from a company called Investors in Private Capital Ltd, whose directors work with the property moguls Reuben brothers.
Construction company JC Bamford Excavators gave £200,000 to Reform and the Tories.
