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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK received a second large donation from businessman Christopher Harborne, pushing the party’s fundraising far ahead of that for Labour and the Conservatives last year.
Harborne gave Reform £3mn in November, adding to the £9mn he donated in August, a sum that was the biggest single donation to a UK political party by a living donor.
Harborne, an aviation entrepreneur and crypto investor, was born in Britain but has lived in Thailand for the past two decades. He gave large sums to Farage’s previous political vehicle, the Brexit party, in 2019 and 2020.
Reform received a total of £5.5mn in cash donations in the fourth quarter of 2025, while the Conservatives attracted £2.3mn and Labour just £1.7mn, according to Electoral Commission data released on Thursday.
Last year, Reform received a total of £18.5mn in cash donations, two-thirds of which came from Harborne, while the Tories took in £13.4mn and Labour £8.2mn.
The latest donation will bolster Farage’s war chest ahead of pivotal elections to the Welsh and Scottish parliaments and English councils in May. The populist party is hoping to win thousands of seats and take control of many local authorities, including in London.
Aviation entrepreneur Christopher Harborne was born in Britain but has lived in Thailand for the past two decades © Kamalaya
Although Reform is ahead of Labour and the Conservatives in opinion polls, with about 26 per cent of public support, its popularity has declined since the start of the year and is now at its lowest level since April 2025.
Harborne, founder of aviation fuel company AML Global, is also an investor in Tether, the issuer of the biggest stablecoin, and its sister crypto exchange Bitfinex. He is known by the name Chakrit Sakunkrit in Thailand.
In addition, he is the largest shareholder in the British defence company Qinetiq, which has contracts with the UK government.
Harborne donated a total of £10mn to the Brexit party before and after the 2019 general election as Farage applied intense pressure on Westminster to withdraw fully from the EU.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Reform received £250,000 from biotech entrepreneur David John Grainger and £250,000 from double glazing entrepreneur Gary Dutton.
It also received £100,000 from a company called Investors in Private Capital Ltd, whose directors work with the property mogul Reuben brothers.
J C Bamford Excavators, the manufacturing company, gave £200,000 to Reform and the Tories.