REFORM UK took another £3 million donation from crypto baron Christopher Harborne earlier this year.
Harborne and Nigel Farage’s relationship has been in the spotlight in recent months since it emerged that the Reform chief is under investigation for receiving £5m from the billionaire before the 2024 General Election, and failing to declare it in his register of interests.
Farage alleges that the money counts as a gift and was for his personal security, so didn’t need to be registered with parliamentary authorities.
He went on to purchase a property valued at £1.4m after receiving the cash.
Mega-donor Harborne has now donated over £20 million to Reform over the years.
But who is Christopher Harborne?
Christopher Harborne is a British-born entrepreneur whose career spans the likes of aviation fuel, private jet trading, defence technology and cryptocurrency.
He lives in Thailand and also holds Thai citizenship under the name Chakrit Sakunkrit.
His business empire includes AML Global, a company supplying aviation fuel worldwide, and Sherriff Global, which buys and sells private aircraft.
He also holds a major financial stake in QinetiQ, a British defence firm.
This isn’t his first foray into political donations.
He has previously donated millions to Reform UK in 2019, when it was known as the Brexit Party. But between 2001 and 2022, he donated close to £2m to the Tories – generally through smaller, regular contributions.
But now, with the £9m donation to Reform UK, Harborne has emerged as one of the largest political funders in modern British history.
The largest single donation to a political party in the UK in history was the £10m left to the Conservative Party by Lord Sainsbury in his will in 2022.
