Nigel Farage says £72m donations from crypto billionaires will help Reform prepare for government

Nigel Farage has said £72million in donations from two crypto billionaires will be used to prepare Reform UK for government.

The Reform UK leader said the huge cash injection gives the party the financial firepower to mount a serious challenge at the next general election.

Crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne have handed Reform a combined £72million over the past 48 hours, dramatically reshaping the landscape of political funding in Britain.

“The money will be used for one purpose only: to make certain we are ready to form a government at the next election,” Mr Farage wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

“Now the British people have a genuine alternative: a properly funded, professionally organised and determined party that will put this country's interests first once more.

“This money is an investment in democratic renewal, pure and simple.”

The sheer size of the donations has been met with opposition from government MPs.

A wave of Labour MPs expressed fury on internal WhatsApp groups, arguing that the government should have acted faster to introduce a domestic donation cap.

Many are now pushing to adopt a proposed amendment to cap individual donations at £100,000 annually.

Speaking earlier today, Robert Jenrick insisted that the two £36million donations “are entirely in line with the law” and that the party would not be required to hand them back.

"These two donations are entirely in line with the law as it is and, as far as we know, what it is going to be in the future," he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

The donations have given Reform a major boost after a summer dominated by scrutiny of the party’s finances, as Mr Jenrick said the money will enable Reform UK to be “battle ready” for a general election.

The treasury spokesperson denied suggestions by Kuenssberg that part of Reform UK’s agenda is “being very pro cryptocurrency” claiming he wanted to see “proper regulation” of cryptocurrency, which he described as being “a wild west in many respects”.

However, the shadow foreign secretary said the crypto industry “has backers in people who want to launder money”

Mr Jenrick earlier repeated assertions that the donors have asked for nothing in return and would not receive honours under a Reform UK government.

He told Sky News’s Sunday Morning programme: “It enables us to do two things: be battle ready for the general election, whether it comes in a few weeks’ time or indeed two years’ time, and to prepare for government.”

He added: “They’ve asked nothing in return for their donations. We’re not like the Tory Party that hands out knighthoods and peerages to their donors.

“Nigel (Farage) has said this in the last few days: neither of these two individuals, nor anyone who donates to our party, is going to be on some honours list in the years ahead if we’re lucky enough to to be in government, and I can assure that.”

He added: “We’re very confident that these two donations are perfectly legal.”

Mr Jenrick called one of the donors, Ben Delo – who was pardoned last year by Donald Trump after a conviction for violating the US Bank Secrecy Act – a “very respected businessman”.