Government vows to ‘seriously address’ limits on political donations after Reform’s £72m windfall

The government has promised to “seriously address” spending limits on political donations amid concern from campaigners after two crypto-billionaires donated £36 million each to Reform UK.

Schools minister Georgia Gould said the government is “really worried about the the big money that that's coming into politics” and the extent to which it is “shaping politics”.

It comes after Angela Rayner and Louise Haigh wrote to the Electoral Commission to set out concerns about the extent of money in politics and to ask them to look carefully at spending limits.

“It's something I think that that needs to be seriously looked at and addressed”, Ms Gould told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The donations from Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, disclosed over the weekend, together amount to three quarters of the money spent at the last general election by all parties combined.

Reform has said it will use the money to fund its preparations for office, and that the men want “nothing” in return.

But campaigners have said the £72 million gifts demonstrate the need for a cap on political donations, and Spotlight on Corruption said the situation “creates risks that the game will be rigged in favour of those with the most cash”.

Proposals for a cap are likely to feature heavily in the House of Lords, which will debate the government’s Representation of the People Bill on Monday.

The Bill already contains measures limiting donations from overseas electors to £100,000 a year, but attempts by MPs to impose a general cap failed after the government promised to task officials with investigating how a measure would work.

Asked about Reform’s latest donations, Ms Gould said: “We are really worried about the the big money that that's coming into politics and the extent to which big money and sometimes money from overseas is shaping politics, rather than the ordinary voters when we knock on doors and have those conversations.

“It's why we've been taking a range of action. We had the the Rycroft Review, which was particularly looking at foreign interference in in politics, and it had an important recommendation that overseas electors' donations should be capped at £100,000.

“And that's legislation we're bringing in to address these issues. And Angela Rayner and Lou Haigh, senior members of the government, have also written to the Electoral Commission to to set out our concerns about the extent of of money in politics, and to ask them to look really carefully at spending limits, not just in elections, but more broadly, because it's something I think that that needs to be seriously looked at and addressed.”

On Sunday, Ms Rayner suggested a cap was still on the table, telling the BBC she wanted to stop people “being able to overpower and buy their way into democracy”.

The Liberal Democrats are likely to push for a cap, having called for “emergency legislation” to impose one and saying the donations exposed “a dangerous flaw in our democratic system”.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, has suggested donations from trade unions should be exempt from any cap, saying were “not the same as two crypto millionaires waking up and giving £72 million”.

Meanwhile, questions remain over whether Reform will be able to keep all of the £72 million.

Robert Jenrick, the party’s economic spokesman, said on Sunday the donations were “entirely in line with the law as it is, and as far as we know, the law as it’s going to be in the future”.

Meanwhile, Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice accused Labour of “hyperventilating hypocrisy” over the donations.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “These donations are made in accordance with the rules and the regulations, and you’ve now got a hyperventilating hypocrisy from the socialists ruining this country, who are trying to change the rules retrospectively, which is it’s not the fair way, it’s not the British way, and I think most people will say ‘does that just mean that Labour are terrified of the progress of Reform and they’re trying to create an unlevel playing field?’

“What these two donations are trying to do is to actually level the playing field. We’re relatively new, we haven’t had the vast donations over the last five to 10 years that Labour and the Tories have had, so we need to employ campaign managers up and down the country, we need to employ brilliant policy people, the best minds, in order to ensure that we have the best policies.”

He also insisted the donors would have “absolutely zero” influence on Reform’s policy platform.

“They haven’t made any asks, they haven’t made demands and nothing would be given in return, we’ve made that crystal clear,” he said.

It came after Ms Rayner appeared to suggest they could be covered by the cap on overseas donors, which will be backdated to March 25.

The rules, which limit donations from overseas electors to £100,000 per year, were proposed in a review by former civil servant Philip Rycroft aimed at countering foreign influence in UK politics.

They also apply to donations made in the first year that someone moves back to the UK.

Mr Delo has been based in Hong Kong but said in April he would return to the UK to avoid restrictions on overseas donors, and Mr Harborne is based in Thailand.

Ms Rayner told the BBC: “With the retrospective action, anyone that’s received donationsthat don’t comply with what was in the Rycroft review, what legislation is currently going through Parliament, would have 60 days to return that money.

“That is not for those individuals, let me be really clear, I do not understand those individual circumstances, but that the retrospective action will apply from March 25.”