Reform UK Leads UK Party Fundraising After Tether Shareholder’s £12M in Donations
Christopher Harborne already hold the record for the largest single political donation by a living individual in British history. Apparently that wasn’t enough. According to the Financial Times, the Thailand-based aviation entrepreneur and Tether shareholder quietly handed Reform UK an additional £3 million in November 2025, on top of the £9 million he donated in August.
Combined, his 2025 contributions total £12 million, making him the dominant financial force behind Nigel Farage’s party by a considerable margin.
The full picture of Reform’s fundraising only emerged through Electoral Commission disclosures, which revealed the party pulled in roughly £18 million across 2025, ahead of the Conservatives at £17 million and Labour at £10 million.
The scale of Harborne’s involvement is difficult to overstate. Research from Democracy for Sale found that 75% of all donations to Reform and its predecessor, the Brexit Party, since 2019 have come from just three men: Harborne, deputy leader Richard Tice, and businessman Jeremy Hosking.
That concentration of funding is unusual even by the increasingly oligarchic standards of British political finance. Harborne alone has now given more than £20 million to Farage-aligned politics across the Brexit Party and Reform combined.
He covered the £32,000 cost of Farage’s visit to the US last July and paid for Farage’s attendance at Trump’s inauguration in January, a trip that cost over £27,000.
Who Is Harborne and Why Does His Background Matter
Harborne is a British national who has lived in Thailand for over two decades, where he also holds citizenship under the Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit. He made his fortune through AML Global, an aviation fuel brokerage, and the Sherriff Global Group, which trades private aircraft.
His more consequential bet, financially, was an early stake in Tether, the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin by market cap, and its sister exchange Bitfinex, reportedly acquired through compensation linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack. He also holds a stake in QinetiQ, the UK defence technology group.
He is, in short, a major shareholder in the most systemically important stablecoin in existence, donating heavily to the UK party that has promised to pass a “Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill” if elected.
Reform became the first UK party to formally accept Bitcoin and crypto donations after Farage’s announcement at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas.
Farage has been vocal about his crypto sympathies, telling LBC listeners in September that “Tether is about to be valued as a $500 billion company” and urging London to embrace the stablecoin industry.
Whether he arrived at those views independently or through his relationship with his party’s largest donor is a question British political observers have been raising with increasing frequency. Farage, for his part, has said he has “not promised him a single thing in return for his donation.”
The Crypto Donation Ban Is Gaining Momentum
The November donation’s disclosure has added fresh fuel to calls for legislative reform. Matt Western, chair of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, wrote to the housing secretary on February 23 urging a temporary moratorium on crypto political donations, along with requirements to convert any digital assets to fiat within 48 hours and restrictions on funds routed through mixers or anonymous sources.
Ministers are weighing options under a new Elections Bill that could include an outright crypto donation ban, tougher disclosure requirements, and tighter controls on shell companies used to route funds.
None of those measures are yet law. Until they are, there is nothing preventing Harborne, or anyone else holding a large, offshore crypto fortune, from continuing to write cheques to whichever party suits their interests. Reform is currently leading in the polls. The next general election is not due until 2029.
