Reform UK has secured its second multimillion pound donation from a top crypto investor, putting Nigel Farage’s party’s fundraising far ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives last year.
Months after Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne gave Reform £9m – the biggest single donation to a political party from a living person in UK history – he gave an additional £3m donation in November last year, the Electoral Commission said on Thursday.
This means that Mr Harborne was responsible for more than half of the £5.5m ($7.4 million) raised by Reform in the fourth quarter of last year.
In previous years, Mr Harborne – a British businessman who has had a long affiliation with right-wing politics and Brexit– has made substantial donations to both the Tories and the Brexit Party, and ad even accompanied Boris Johnson on a trip to Ukraine when he was prime minister.
Who is Christopher Harborne?
Mr Harborne is a British businessman and a leading cryptocurrency investor in his early sixties.
He was educated at Westminster School, an elite private school near parliament, before studying at Downing College in Cambridge and receiving an MBA at the prestigious business school INSEAD.
He currently resides in Thailand and holds Thai citizenship under the name Chakrit Sakunkrit.
Where has his wealth come from?
Earlier in his career, Mr Harborne worked as a management consultant at McKinsey and Co, before relocating to Asia to run a research company.
He is now the chief executive of Sherriff Global Group, which trades in private planes, and the owner of AML Global, a firm that sells aviation fuel.
Additionally, Mr Harborne has had a shareholder stake in the defence tech firm Qinetiq, which has previously been awarded Ministry of Defence (MoD) contracts.
As well as his aviation businesses, he is a technology investor and set up a company, Singular AI Consulting Limited, and is now a shareholder of the cryptocurrency Tether.
What is his involvement in politics?
The businessman has donated on several occasions to right-wing parties, including a £6m donation to the Brexit Party in 2019 and a £3m donation shortly before the 2019 general election.
Since 2001, he has also made smaller donations to the Tories, amounting to around £15,000 per annum.
In November 2022, Mr Harborne donated £1m to the private office of Boris Johnson, one of the biggest donations ever made to an individual British politician.
He subsequently acted as an adviser to the former prime minister on his trip to Kyiv in September 2023 to meet Volodymyr Zelensky.
Reform UK have denied that Nigel Farage’s promotion of Tether, the cryptocurrency Harborne is a shareholder in, and support for deregulation of cryptocurrency in the UK is linked to the donation.
When asked about the link, a spokesperson for the party said: “No. [It is] because [Harborne] supports Reform UK, just like he supported the Brexit Party.”
