Reform UK declines to disclose donors’ residency details as proposed £100,000 cap looms
Richard Tice says Reform UK complied with current and proposed donation laws, while the residency status of its two £36m donors remains undisclosed.
Reform UK has declined to disclose whether two donors who gave the party a combined £72m met a proposed 12-month UK residency requirement, leaving the future treatment of the contributions uncertain.
Deputy leader Richard Tice said Reform was confident it had complied with all current and proposed donation laws. He would not say when crypto billionaire Ben Delo returned to the UK from Hong Kong, or how much time Thailand-based donor Christopher Harborne spends in Britain.
Delo and Harborne each donated £36m in separate contributions announced within 24 hours. The donations have been described by The Guardian as unprecedented in UK political history and have significantly increased Reform’s resources before the next election.
The proposed rules follow a review of overseas influence in UK politics by former senior civil servant Sir Philip Rycroft. They would limit overseas-based British donors to £100,000 if they had not been UK-resident for electoral purposes for at least a year from March 2026.
Rycroft said returning donors would have to live in the UK for a full calendar year before being treated as domestic donors. The proposed restrictions would apply retrospectively once the Representation of the People Bill becomes law, although the legislation’s final form and application remain uncertain.
The bill does not currently include an overall cap on individual donations. Tice criticised the retrospective proposal, while schools minister Georgia Gould said it was deliberately drafted that way to prevent donations being brought forward before the legislation takes effect.
