Farage says £72m donations are compliant 'with the law today'

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said two big donations given to his party are "100% compliant with the law today", but was not able say whether they would be permissible if a rule change, currently being debated in Parliament, were passed.

Ministers are seeking to put a £100,000 annual cap on donations from British expats, backdated to 25 March 2026.

Farage argued the government should not retrospectively declare donations illegal and threatened to retaliate by limiting trade union donations, if elected PM.

Trade union leader Paul Nowak said there was no similarity between "care workers chipping in a few quid a year through their union and a party bought and paid for by billionaires."

Over the weekend, Reform announced that it had received two donations of £36m each from wealthy businessmen Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, who are both British but have until recently lived abroad.

Speaking to the BBC, Farage said there was "no question" their donations - the largest in British political history - were within the law "as it stands".

Asked if the two men were resident in the UK by 25 March, Farage said: "I'm not going into their particular details."

He went on to criticise the government's attempts to retrospectively declare some donations illegal, saying: "This cannot be."

"If the government was allowed to do this, you know what would happen? There would be a response the other way.

"We or the Conservatives would say 'if you're going to stop legitimate donors like this, we would say to the trade unions, you can't give money'."

Farage argued such a move would "collapse" the system of political funding and lead to taxpayers having to fund political parties, a system he said would be opposed by the British public.

Since 2020, Labour has received almost £43m from trade unions, who raise their money through individual workers' membership fees.

On Monday afternoon, the House of Lords is debating the government's Representation of the People Bill which caps the amount British people living overseas can donate to political parties at £100,000.

The bill also states that those who moved back to the UK would have to wait for at least a year before donating more than £100,000.

The legislation states that donors must have been registered as in the UK by 25 March 2026 in order to avoid the cap.

It is not currently clear exactly when Delo and Harborne returned to the UK.

Education Minister Georgia Gould told the BBC's Today programme the government was "really worried about the big money that is coming into politics... and sometimes money from overseas that is shaping politics rather than the ordinary voters".

She said the new rule changes had been added to the bill, following a report by former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft into foreign interference in British politics, published on 25 March.

The two £36m donations to Reform have reignited questions about political funding.

Conservative shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat said it was important to ensure "we do not end up with a sort of Americanisation of politics where money just sort of runs free".

Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart called for emergency legislation to cap campaign donations and spending.

The Green Party urged the Labour Party to "find its spine and support a tight cap".