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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK received a £9mn donation from businessman Christopher Harborne in August, pushing the party’s fundraising far ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives.
The money is the biggest single donation to a UK political party ever by a living donor.
Harborne, an aviation entrepreneur and crypto investor, had given large sums to Farage’s Brexit party — Reform’s predecessor — in 2019 and 2020, but had not donated cash to the party since.
Reform received a total of £10.3mn in cash donations for the third quarter of the year, while the Tories pulled in £4.5mn and Labour just £1.9mn, according to Electoral Commission data released on Thursday.
Reform has consistently led in the opinion polls since April, but to date Farage has had less success in attracting significant funds from donors. The July to September period marks the first quarter in which Reform has received more donations than the Tories since the 2024 general election.
Harborne, who was born in Britain but lives in Thailand, is the founder of aviation fuel company AML Global. He is also an investor in Tether, the issuer of the biggest stablecoin, and its sister crypto exchange Bitfinex.
In addition, he is the largest shareholder in British defence company Qinetiq, which has contracts with the UK government.
During the quarter, Reform received a further £500,000 from Nick Candy, the party’s treasurer, and £100,000 from William Alan McIntosh, the founder of Emerald Investment Partners, an investment company.
Despite falling to third place in the polls under leader Kemi Badenoch, the Tories continued to draw in support from some existing backers, including £1mn from video games tycoon Jeremy Elliott San in the third quarter, taking the total he has donated to the party this year to £3mn.
Harborne has also previously donated to the Conservatives, giving them £1.8mn between 2003 and 2022.
He gave £1mn to Boris Johnson after the former Tory leader stood down as prime minister. The donation, in November 2022, was made to The Office of Boris Johnson Ltd.
The aviation entrepreneur has now declared a total of £24.5mn in donations since 2019, of which £22.7mn went to Reform.
While no other living donor has matched the size of Harborne’s latest gift, Lord John Sainsbury left the Tories £10mn in his will in 2022.