Reform UK has received a further £4m donation from British crypto billionaire Ben Delo, who was convicted in the US in 2022 for anti-money laundering failures before being pardoned by Donald Trump. The party says it is confident the gift will not fall foul of a new cap on overseas donors, which requires donors to have been on the UK electoral register for at least 12 months, suggesting Delo may have been registered in Britain for longer than previously assumed. The donations underline the growing influence of a handful of mega-donors on Reform's finances as the party gears up for the possibility of an early election.

Delo's total gifts to Reform now stand at £8m, making him the party's second-largest donor behind Thailand-based investor Christopher Harborne, who has given £15m since the last election. Electoral Commission figures show Harborne and another billionaire, Sasan Ghandehari, made no donations in the second quarter, potentially because they too could be caught by the cap. Overall, parties received £17m in donations in the quarter, up from £11m a year earlier, with Labour taking £650,000 from Gary Lubner and Lord Sainsbury and the Conservatives lagging with £265,000 from a firm linked to Henry Angest. Delo, who is reportedly moving back to the UK, has said he turned to Reform out of frustration with what he called the "entrenched self-deception" of Britain's elites.