Turnabout is fair play according to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has warned the left-wing Labour Party that he will look to ban political donations from trade unions should the government seek to retroactively enact targeted bans on donations from his own supporters.
Last week, the political landscape in Britain was rocked by two record donations of £36 million ($48m) to Reform by cryptocurrency billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne. While unprecedented, current British law does not set a statutory maximum on donations to political parties, meaning that the contributions to Reform were perfectly legal.
Mr Farage and his allies have noted that the donations would merely put the party on a level playing field with the two main establishment parties, both of which have raised considerably more money throughout the recent past, and thus have been able to invest in local campaign infrastructure that has shielded them from serious challenge to their political power.
However, over the weekend, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, who faced scandal for accepting thousands in so-called “freebees” gifts from top Labour donor Lord Ali, suggested that the government may look to impose a cap on donations and that if it did so, the limit would “be backdated”, meaning that it could retroactively criminalise the contributions to Reform from Delo and Harborne.
Rayner, who was forced to resign from her post as Housing Secretary last year after admitting to having failed to pay full tax on one of her houses, before being brought back last month by recently installed PM Andy Burnham, also said that the government would look to change rules on Britons based overseas, including those who “recently returned to the UK”, as was the case for Delo, who previously lived in Hong Kong before moving back to the UK, and for Harborne, who lives in Thailand.
In turn, Mr Farage has warned that if Labour uses “old communist state” tactics to retrospectively change the law and make the donations illegal, a future Reform government may look to also change the way political contributions are made in Britain, including banning donations from trade unions, which would severely impact the fundraising ability of the Labour Party.
Indeed, despite not even donating during the 2024 general election over disputes with then-Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, the Unite union is estimated to have donated over £53 million ($72m) to the Labour Party since 2010. Mr Farage suggested that such financial support was rewarded by Labour with the Employment Rights Act, which strengthened their ability to enact strikes, and in wage increases for union sectors such as train drivers.
“If anybody is giving money to do political bidding, it’s the trade unions,” the Reform chief noted.
Mr Farage also pointed to findings from the Autonomy Institute, which reported last year that eight companies that donated over £580,000 ($782,000) to Labour had received government contracts totalling almost £138 million ($186m) within less than two years of their financial support for the party. The think tank further reported that since 2001, 25 firms with ties to the Labour Party had been awarded £796.43 million ($1.1bn) in government contracts.
The Brexit boss said that unlike the two establishment parties, Reform will not be awarding membership in the House of Lords to high-profile donors, including Delo and Harbone, whom Mr Farage said only donated “because they want real political change in Britain and they know that we’re the only party with the absolute determination to do what is necessary to turn this country around from the terrible downward cycle of decline and despair that we’re currently in.”
“Neither Ben Delo nor Christopher Harbaugh will be getting membership of the House of Lords. It isn’t happening. We’re not for sale,” Farage declared, while maintaining that a Reform government plans to regulate the crypto market, rather than allowing the “Wild West” approach to continue as would presumably benefit the two billionaire donors.
The suggestion that the government may seek to block the donations also drew criticism from Reform’s Shadow Chancellor, Robert Jenrick, who said: “Labour will do literally anything they can to rig the system against Reform. Cancelling elections. Changing the law to stop Brits donating. They’ve stopped trying to fix the country and are now desperately trying to save themselves.”
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