Nigel Farage has defended Reform UK's acceptance of a record £72million from two crypto-currency billionaires, Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, insisting both men are UK voters entitled to donate under current law. The donations have raised questions because both donors spent years living abroad, which would ordinarily have brought them under Labour's planned crackdown on foreign political funding, and Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice declined to say when the pair had relocated to Britain.

Each of the two men gave £36million, with Mr Delo previously registered to vote in Oxfordshire since 2022 and Mr Harborne registered on and off in Hampshire since 2020, according to records seen by the Daily Mail, potentially allowing both to sidestep Labour's proposed £100,000 cap on donations from overseas-based British citizens, which would be backdated to 25 March. Farage argued rival parties were "having kittens" over Reform's new financial firepower, noting the party spent just £5.5million at the 2024 election compared with £30million by Labour and £23million by the Conservatives, while Cabinet Office minister Louise Haigh has asked the Electoral Commission to review the current £34million spending cap, calling it "too high".