Angela Rayner has confirmed that new rules restricting overseas donations to political parties will be applied retrospectively, potentially forcing Reform UK to return £72million in donations from two crypto entrepreneurs. The Communities Secretary said the Representation of the People Bill, currently before Parliament, would cap donations from recent expats and returning Britons at £100,000 a year, backdated to 25 March when a government review into foreign political funding was published. Reform figures reacted furiously, accusing Labour of rewriting the rules after the fact to target a political rival, with claims of no precedent for such action in modern British politics.

Under the plan, anyone who received non-compliant donations would have 60 days to repay them once the legislation passes, though Rayner said she could not comment on the specific circumstances of donors Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, who gave a combined £72million to Reform. Both men are believed to have moved back to the UK from Hong Kong and Thailand respectively before the cut-off date, and Reform insists the donations are entirely legal. Separately, Labour is also considering an overall cap on individual donations, an idea Prime Minister Andy Burnham reportedly abandoned after union pressure, even as trade union leaders Paul Nowak and Sharon Graham voiced support for capping individual, but not organisational, donations.