graphic<\/a><\/p>\nThe extraordinary measure will be seen as a sign of the stakes attached to the donations, which would give Reform a vast advantage in organising supporters on the ground before the next election.<\/p>\n
However, Farage acknowledged on Monday that Reform could fall foul of government moves to clamp down on foreign donors, although the party has said the \u00a372m donations are in line with both current rules and those already voted on by MPs in the bill.<\/p>\n
The legislation currently restricts donations from expats to \u00a3100,000, which would also apply for the first 12 months after they return to the UK \u2013 backdated to 25 March this year.<\/p>\n
Ministers have already brought in a minimum residency requirement of the remainder of the calendar year in which they return, plus a further full year, meaning Reform may not be able to accept the \u00a372m donations until January 2028.<\/p>\n
Delo has been based in Hong Kong but said in April he would return to the UK to avoid restrictions, while Harborne was based in Thailand but is believed to have registered to vote in Hampshire in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth these donations are 100% compliant with the law today, of that there is no question whatsoever,\u201d Farage told the BBC. When asked if the two billionaires were UK residents as of 25 March, he replied: \u201cAll I\u2019m going to say is, with the law of the land as it stands, they are both compliant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lady Taylor told peers that the government was considering how it could strengthen the residency requirements of political donors. Photograph: HoL<\/p>\n
Sharon Taylor, a Labour minister in the Lords, told peers that as well as donors having to demonstrate a \u201cgenuine and ongoing connection to the UK\u201d, the government was also looking at further restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are considering how we will strengthen the residency requirements, including ensuring the length of time spent in the UK aligns with broader government policy,\u201d Lady Taylor added.<\/p>\n
However, MPs and peers who have been pushing for a full domestic donations cap are unlikely to be satisfied by the new amendments. Government sources have said they do not want to delay the bill\u2019s progress further by considering such a cap, but are open-minded on further legislation. MPs have voiced anger in internal WhatsApp groups that the chance has been missed to cap domestic donations in this bill while it was in the Commons.<\/p>\n
Angela Rayner, speaking at the TUC, criticised Reform for suggesting its donations from cryptocurrency billionaires were equivalent to the contributions from trade union members to Labour.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow dare they try to compare money from a couple of crypto billionaires to union members\u2019 subs? The most highly regulated political funding we can have,\u201d the communities secretary said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt couldn\u2019t be more different from a couple of offshore billionaires trying to buy our democracy \u2026 We will never undermine the rights of working people to organise collectively and democratically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trade unions are set to issue a statement on Tuesday on political donations condemning attempts by Farage to compare wealthy individual donors with individual members who donate to Labour through their union, and urging the government to go further on political donations.<\/p>\n
The head of Britain\u2019s union movement, Paul Nowak, said the government must act to \u201cstop the super-rich corrupting our politics\u201d. But union sources had said there were \u201csignificant differences\u201d between general secretaries on how to proceed.<\/p>\n
Unite\u2019s general secretary, Sharon Graham, on Sunday broke ranks and backed a limit on individual domestic donations. But others, including GMB chief Gary Smith, fear it would lead a future rightwing government to curb union donations.<\/p>\n
Government sources said that calls from opposition parties for any changes to domestic donations to apply to the unions too were \u201cnot under active consideration\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, the government is understood to be looking at spending limits for parties, which are currently restricted to the year before a general election, with tighter limits in the weeks running up to polling day.<\/p>\n
In a letter to the Electoral Commission in August, Rayner and Louise Haigh, the first secretary of state, wrote: \u201cWe believe spending limits on parties and candidates are too high, and ought to be reduced.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government has also set up a cross-government \u201ctask and finish\u201d team to consider threats to UK democracy, including political finance, illegitimate influence, and broader threats to political equality.<\/p>\n
Philip Rycroft, who produced an independent report on tightening electoral law around overseas donations, said the Reform donations reopened broader questions about donations and spending caps.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time has come when this does need a hard look. It would have been better if the government had started out before we had these huge donations coming down the track,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we have to ask the question, is this healthy for our democratic process to have more money coming from fewer people in bigger lumps?\u201d<\/p>\n
MPs who have campaigned for a donations cap are working with peers on a number of amendments to the bill which would tighten it up without having to wait for another act of parliament.<\/p>\n
They include one to enable ministers to set a cap on all donations at a later date, and another to prevent spending limits being raised without Electoral Commission approval.<\/p>\n
Teresa O\u2019Neill, a shadow local government minister in the Lords, said some of the measures in the bill were deeply troubling. \u201cEven just the perception of partisan, targeted legislation risks breaking down longstanding political conventions and, crucially, trust in the system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Reform denounced the government\u2019s existing plans, with Zia Yusuf, the party\u2019s home affairs spokesperson, describing them on X as \u201can unprecedented step from a leftwing government to plunge Britain into dictatorship and communism\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham\u2019s government could thwart Reform\u2019s unprecedented \u00a372m donations with retrospective restrictions on political donors that will include…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-770880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}