Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has vaulted to the top of Britain’s political fundraising tables after securing a £9 million cheque from tech and aviation investor Christopher Harborne, one of the largest single donations ever made to a UK party.

Figures published by the Electoral Commission for the third quarter of 2025 show that the gift – recorded in August – helped Reform raise about £10.5 million in three months, more than either of the two established Westminster parties. The Conservatives received roughly £7 million over the same period, including public funds, while Labour reported around £2.5–£2.6 million and the Liberal Democrats about £2.1 million. Across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, parties declared more than £24 million in donations and public money in the quarter.

Harborne’s £9 million is the biggest single contribution on record from a living individual. Only a posthumous bequest of more than £10 million from the late supermarket heir Lord John Sainsbury to the Conservatives, accepted in 2023, ranks higher. It overtakes the £8 million donated by fellow Sainsbury family member Lord David Sainsbury to the Liberal Democrats in 2019 and sits alongside a cluster of multi‑million‑pound gifts that have flowed into Conservative coffers from business figures in recent years.

The scale of the donation is striking given Reform’s modest parliamentary footprint. The party holds just five of 650 seats in the House of Commons, many of them gained through defections, yet it has been leading national opinion polls. An Ipsos survey in September put Reform on 34 per cent, ahead of Labour on 22 per cent and the Conservatives on 14 per cent, suggesting the insurgent party has converted protest support into a more durable presence in the political landscape.

Farage has portrayed Harborne’s backing as both a vindication of his project and a means to turn what was once a campaign vehicle into a fully fledged national party machine. He has said the businessman asked for “absolutely nothing in return”, describing him instead as a long‑standing supporter dismayed that Britain has failed to exploit the regulatory and economic freedoms promised by Brexit or keep pace with rapid advances in technology. The money, Farage argues, allows Reform to compete with Labour’s trade union funding and the Conservatives’ network of corporate donors and wealthy benefactors.

Harborne, a British‑born entrepreneur who lives mainly in Thailand and also holds Thai citizenship, is no stranger to the world of high‑stakes political giving. Under his Thai name, Chakrit Sakunkrit, he has built fortunes in aviation through his Sherriff Global Group aircraft trading business and in digital finance, including a significant stake in the crypto exchange Bitfinex, which is closely linked to Tether, the world’s largest issuer of dollar‑pegged stablecoins. Court filings in the United States have highlighted the vast profits generated by Tether in recent years, helping to explain the scale of Harborne’s resources.

He was previously the biggest financial backer of the Brexit Party, Reform’s predecessor, donating more than £6 million in 2019–20, and has given close to £2 million to the Conservatives since the early 2000s, along with £1 million routed through a company associated with former prime minister Boris Johnson. Electoral records also show he has personally covered tens of thousands of pounds in expenses for Farage’s trips to the United States, including the former UKIP leader’s attendance at Donald Trump’s inauguration. With the latest payment, Harborne’s known contributions to UK political causes over the past two decades rise to around £24–25 million.

The £9 million does not stand alone. Reform’s filings show around £490,000–£500,000 from Nick Candy, the billionaire property developer who became the party’s treasurer in late 2024 after years of donating to the Conservatives, and £50,000 from Claudia Harmsworth, Lady Rothermere, wife of the owner of the Daily Mail group. Several other five‑ and six‑figure sums from financiers and entrepreneurs hint at a growing network of wealthy backers who see Farage’s party as the main vehicle for right‑of‑centre discontent.

For Reform, which made a dramatic breakthrough in the May 2025 local elections by winning 677 council seats and taking control of 10 councils, the influx of cash comes at a critical moment. The party is preparing for further local and devolved contests in 2026 and beyond, while Farage talks openly about “professionalising” operations ahead of an expected general election in 2029. Strategists say the money will fund professional staff, data and digital infrastructure, and national advertising on a scale that was previously out of reach.

Under current law there is no upper limit on how much an individual or organisation can donate to a UK political party, provided the source is “permissible” – typically someone on the UK electoral register, including overseas electors, or a company or body registered and doing business in Britain. Donations above £500 from impermissible or anonymous sources are banned, and gifts over £5,000 to national parties must be reported and published by the Electoral Commission on a quarterly basis. Harborne’s contribution was accepted and disclosed under these rules.

Campaign‑finance watchdogs say that is precisely the problem. Transparency International UK, which has long called for an annual donation cap of £10,000 and tougher checks on opaque funding vehicles, points to Harborne’s cheque as evidence of a system in which parties can become financially dependent on a handful of ultra‑wealthy individuals. The Electoral Reform Society has used the Reform case to renew its argument for a statutory ceiling on donations, suggesting even a £1 million limit would be generous and warning that “politics should never be a personal project for the ultra‑rich”.

The episode also feeds into a wider debate about how British politics is funded. Labour still relies heavily on trade unions alongside corporate and individual donors; the Conservatives on business leaders, financiers and the occasional bequest; smaller parties on a mix of memberships, crowdfunding and occasional windfalls. Harborne’s record‑breaking gift underscores how quickly that balance can shift – and how one donor’s decision can transform the campaign prospects of a party with only a toehold in Westminster but ambitions to redraw the electoral map. Whether voters are comfortable with that level of financial clout resting in so few hands is set to become an increasingly contested question as the next election cycle gathers pace.