Reform UK gets another £4m from Trump-pardoned crypto donor
Reform UK has received another £4 million from British crypto billionaire Ben Delo, a Trump-pardoned donor whose latest gift takes his total to £8 million and helped the party bank £5.3 million in the second quarter of 2026, Electoral Commission records show. The party says it is confident the money will not be caught by a new overseas donor cap.
Key Takeaways
- Ben Delo’s latest £4 million gift takes his Reform UK donations to £8 million, making him the party’s second-biggest donor after Christopher Harborne.
- Reform took £5.3 million in Q2 2026, the most of any UK party, with Delo providing the bulk of that haul.
- Reform says it is confident it will not have to return the gift under the overseas donor cap in force since March.
- Delo was convicted in the US in 2022 over anti-money laundering controls at BitMEX and was pardoned by Donald Trump last year.
Why did Ben Delo give Reform another £4 million?
According to The Guardian, Delo wrote in The Telegraph in April that England was his home and that “the biggest obstacle to national recovery is the entrenched self-deception of our elites.”
He said he had become politically active for the first time and had already donated £4 million since the start of the year “to help Nigel Farage to build Reform UK into a genuine alternative party of government.” He argued the party was leading in the polls by recognising the scale of Britain’s problems.
Delo, an Oxford graduate who describes himself as a champion of free speech, said as a person on the autism spectrum he disliked what he called an official culture that “forces everyone to be chronically dishonest,” citing expression of views on transgender people.
Will the overseas donor cap block Delo’s gift?
A cap applied since March 2026 says donors must be on the UK domestic electoral register for at least 12 months to avoid a £100,000-a-year limit. Thai-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne, who has given £15 million to Reform since the last election and £5 million to Farage personally before May 2024, did not donate in the second quarter and could potentially be caught by the cap.
Delo had been expected to fall under the cap after writing that his first donation of the year came before the government’s overseas-donor rules. A Reform source told The Guardian the party is confident it will not have to return any of the latest £4 million, raising the prospect he may have been on the UK register longer than previously thought.
The Times reported that Delo relocated from Hong Kong to the UK so he could continue giving money. The Guardian said he was formerly based in Hong Kong and is said to be in the process of moving back to Britain. For more on high-profile fortunes and political giving, see BlasterPost’s Net Worth & Wealth coverage.
How does Reform’s haul compare with other UK parties?
The National reported Electoral Commission figures covering April to June 2026: parties accepted about £17.1 million in donations and public funding. Reform UK took £5.3 million. Labour came second on £3.6 million, including £650,000 from Autoglass founder Gary Lubner, £650,000 from supermarket tycoon David Sainsbury, and £550,000 from entrepreneur Ali Mosawi.
The Conservatives accepted £2.8 million and the Liberal Democrats £1.4 million, The National said. Restore Britain, the party linked to former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, received £250,000 from Cade Hill Investments, owned by tech entrepreneur Simon Galbraith. Andy Burnham’s government is considering an annual cap on UK as well as overseas donors but did not include a UK-donor cap in this week’s elections bill amid union concerns about their ability to donate.
Delo co-founded BitMEX and pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls. He has said he accepted a plea bargain and civil fine for a regulatory failing that is not a crime in the UK, then was pardoned by Trump.