The cryptocurrency entrepreneur Christopher Harborne has donated £36m to Reform UK, matching an identical sum given by fellow billionaire Ben Delo, handing the party £72m in a single day. The gifts are jointly the largest donations ever made to a UK political party and have reignited calls from opposition parties and transparency campaigners for a cap on individual political donations, amid concerns about the "Americanisation" of British politics. The timing is notable because Reform is already under intense scrutiny over its finances, with the Metropolitan Police investigating the party and Nigel Farage facing a parliamentary standards probe over an earlier £5m gift from Harborne.

Farage said he was "honoured and humbled" and that Reform would use the money to hire roughly 400 campaign managers as it moves onto an "election footing". Harborne insisted he wanted nothing in return, "no peerage, no policy change". Labour's Bridget Phillipson accused Farage of trying to buy his way out of scandal, while Green deputy leader Rachel Millward criticised the government for wavering on a donations cap, and Transparency International UK warned two people could soon "buy our democracy". An amendment proposing a £100,000 annual donation cap, backed by 60 MPs, was not put to a vote, though new rules capping donations from returning expatriates like Harborne and Delo are due to take effect.