Good morning. Nigel Farage has a confirmed talent for upending the laws of political gravity, and this weekend has been no exception, as he declared himself “humbled” by two donations of £۳۶m each from cryptocurrency tycoons Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.
I’d shoehorn a joke about buses in here but, honestly, this feels too consequential for that.
The largest single donations in British political history were made after a dismal party conference, the substance of which was all but obscured by the financial scandals engulfing Reform.
As the financial dubiety continues, and the numbers of millions tick upwards to seem almost meaningless, it might be tempting to roll your eyes and focus elsewhere – but this is not the time to look away. These are gamechanging donations, transformative if used effectively at this stage in the election cycle, just as Labour has regained its confidence and the Tories are contemplating a comeback.
As a bill that could stop donations like this in their tracks returns to the Lords later today, I spoke to Jessica Elgot, the Guardian’s deputy political editor, about what these millions mean and why they matter. First, a wrap-up of this weekend’s headlines.
Weekend roundup
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Economy | Former chancellor George Osborne said Britain’s economy had “fallen off a cliff” since Brexit – and that rejoining the European Union’s customs union would be the fastest route to recovery.
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Technology | Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to “slow the pace” of AI development. Amodei had cautioned that an AI swarm could otherwise become capable of “taking over the entire internet” within a year.
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Sweden | With most of the votes counted, Sweden’s national election remained too close to call on Sunday night, with left-wing parties holding a lead of just a single seat according to a partial tally by the election authority.
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Ukraine | A train carrying Boris Johnson and the former CIA chief David Petraeus may have been the target of a Russian drone strike that hit a train engine near the Poland-Ukraine border, according to Ukrainian Railways.
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Travel | The air traffic control outage that caused thousands of flights to be grounded across the UK earlier in the week was caused by a military aircraft entering “spurious” flight data into the system, according to a report.
In depth: More money, more problems?
Let’s start with more detail on the donations, by businessmen who have amassed astronomical fortunes trading in cryptocurrency. Ben Delo, a previous Reform donor, has given £۳۶m. Delo was convicted in the US in ۲۰۲۲ for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his trillion-dollar cryptocurrency business BitMEX, before being pardoned by Donald Trump last year.
(A brief note here on how that story came to light: the Sunday Times approached Reform and Farage after a confidential source told them that Delo had donated to the party. Soon after, the Telegraph published an opinion piece by Delo himself, announcing the donation and trouncing the Sunday Times scoop. As Sunday Times political editor Ben Riley-Smith noted on X: “A fundamental part of political reporting – approaching for comment before publishing – just totally breaks down if this is what happens. Bad for both sides: Will increase the chance of inaccuracies.” Reform has used the same tactic with the Guardian, as we talked about in a previous newsletter.)
Less than ۲۴ hours later, another crypto donor was troubling the Telegraph’s op-ed page: this time Christopher Harborne – whose previous £۵m gift to Farage is the one currently subject to a parliamentary standards investigation – announcing he had likewise donated £۳۶m, saying: “My competitive spirit inspired me to match [Delo].”
Taken together, these donations are unprecedented in British political history: £۷۲m is bigger than the total sum spent by the seven largest parties in the last general election (about £۶۷.۹m) and almost double the total donations to all political parties so far this year (about £۴۱.۸m).
Are these donations legal?
“There’s nothing wrong with these donations that we know of,” says Jessica, her final four words doing a lot of heavy lifting in present circumstances. The Metropolitan police is conducting an inquiry into Reform’s finances and Farage is facing a parliamentary standards investigation into that £۵m Harborne gift, made before he was first elected an MP in ۲۰۲۴ and first revealed by the Guardian. Reform and Farage have denied any wrongdoing.
It’s a legal requirement for every party to rigorously check the sources of donations, and, doing the media rounds yesterday, Reform’s economics spokesperson Robert Jenrick was sounding supremely confident that the donations were “entirely in line with the law as it is and, as far as we know, what it is going to be in the future”.
Jenrick was referencing the representation of the people bill, going through parliament, which will bring in more stringent rules about foreign donations. Gifts to political parties from Britons living abroad or those who have returned to the country within the past ۱۲ months will be capped at £۱۰۰,۰۰۰ a year, with the rules backdated to March. Delo has recently moved back to Britain from Hong Kong, while Harborne is a citizen of the UK and Thailand.
I don’t have space to get into it here, but if you’re curious about the path to becoming a crypto billionaire and the people who get trampled along the way, I’d recommend the actor and crypto investigator Ben McKenzie’s excellent film Everybody Is Lying to You for Money. (Yes, he’s Ryan in The OC).
How could Reform spend the money?
Reform has already vastly scaled up its party infrastructure since the general election, moving to new offices in London’s Millbank Tower, once synonymous with New Labour election operations. Press officers, graphic designers, videographers and regional organisers have augmented staffing capacity, but their wider policy offering is still weak. An injection of cash will probably mean more hires to address this, and perhaps even drafting legislation to boost Farage’s projection of a party that’s ready for government.
Reform is expected to install campaign managers and branch coordinators in hundreds of seats across the country – as their list of ۶۰-plus job vacancies indicates.
And if this newsletter gig doesn’t work out for me, I might throw my bunnet in for the senior writer role advertised here – the application requires a ۵۰۰-word letter, written in the style of Zia Yusuf, “setting out how the political class broke Britain and how Reform UK will fix it”.
The donations also promise a massive boost to Reform’s visibility – they can pay for the big “air war” expenses incurred in coming byelections and council elections next year, more locally targeted online advertising and billboards, as well as getting creative with its TV studios.
Reform now has the money to focus on labour-intensive data gathering in target constituencies as well, says Jessica, who predicts it will be “transformative” for the party.
“You’ve got enough money now to spend on the granular and expensive work of going around every single constituency in the country making sure your data about voters, and non-voters, is bang on. And if you’re a party that wants to show that you’re on the march, they’ve got the momentum, you can dominate the airwaves, dominate people’s social media feeds.”
Will this prompt a rethink on a cap for all donations?
Labour MPs’ WhatsApp chats have been popping off over the weekend, Jessica reports, with anger that the government did not act last week to restrict domestic donations in the elections bill. Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, pulled her amendment proposing an annual cap of £۱۰۰,۰۰۰ after Andy Burnham dropped his support for it, following intensive lobbying from the party’s trade union backers, who argued it would undermine their ability to donate to the party.
But the bill has its second reading in the Lords later today and, yesterday, communities secretary Angela Rayner suggested that the government was still considering amendments and that “it’s not as simple as we’re saying we won’t put a cap”.
As Sunday turned into Monday, some unions appeared to be shifting their opposition while Labour MPs and donors were urging the government to look again at party funding rules. But Reform argues that – as a relatively new political force – it needs this cash injection to level the playing field with other parties and their far longer-standing donor arrangements.
What about an early election?
As Jessica reminds me, Reform will be able to splash its cash in the coming months because many restrictions on party spending don’t kick in until a general election is called. “Other parties are not spending that money now because they don’t have it. And their donors are not giving money at this stage in the cycle. So they won’t have any competition for those eyeballs whatsoever.”
There’s growing chatter in Westminster that – if economic growth continues to inch upwards and Reform remains static in the polls – Burnham may go for an early summer general election next year. (With a note of caution from Jessica that there will probably be a backlash from hundreds of Labour MPs on course to lose their seats.)
A major consideration for the prime minister is, of course, Reform – which remains, in recent polls, a couple of points behind Labour and a similar amount ahead of the Tories. According to Jenrick on Sunday, these donations enable his party to be “battle ready”, whatever Burnham decides. Meanwhile, Labour sent out an “urgent” fundraising appeal over the weekend, warning that Reform could “simply drown Labour’s message out in elections to come”.
Clearly, £۷۲m in cash is good for Reform. “But whether it re-energises the party, and voters think, ‘People are willing to give this money millions of pounds because they offer a radical reset and I want that, too’ or whether it adds to that perception of a party being bought by billionaires, it’s hard to say.”
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Crucially, it keeps everybody talking about Reform’s finances. After a summer marred by scandal, internal divisions and a damp squib byelection, and at a point when Farage’s own popularity ratings have plummeted and support for the party has stalled, that is last place Reform wants to be.
The week to come
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Monday | First ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will meet in Cardiff to discuss moves towards self-determination across the nations.
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Tuesday | The final report of the Thirwall Inquiry into events at the neonatal unit where Lucy Letby worked will be published. Letby was sentenced to ۱۵ whole-life terms for murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others.
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Thursday | Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, will address the European parliament.
What else we’ve been enjoying
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Much of the hand-wringing around the death of reading can seem uncircumstantial, but not this excellent column from John Harris on what it could mean for the future of our democracy in a time of “nonsense and poison”. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team
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Anyone who, like me, has returned to the place they grew up to see if mere proximity can transport them, in spirit, back to their youth will inhale this thoughtful and emotive collection of mini-essays by Deborah Levy, Julia Samuels and other novelists on revisiting their childhood homes. Here be ghosts. Craille Maguire Gillies, newsletters team
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Our This is how we do it series is a must-read, and this piece from a couple on making time for sex alongside their open relationship and raising three young kids is no exception (not least to understand how they possibly find the time). Charlie
Sport
Tennis | Alexander Zverev, the No ۱ seed, beat Ben Shelton ۶-۳, ۷-۶ (۲), ۵-۷, ۶-۲, the American’s hopes dashed in his first grand slam final.
Golf | The captain Anna Nordqvist led Europe to a ۱۵-۱۳ victory in the Solheim Cup a month after retiring from competitive golf.
Football | Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea dominated in a ۵-۰ away victory against Eva Olid’s Manchester United, while Pro Ref admitted Erling Haaland’s winner in Sunday’s Manchester derby should not have counted after the VAR ruled Enzo Fernández was not interfering with play in the buildup.
The front pages
“Revealed: true scale of Britain’s involvement in the slave trade”, is the Guardian’s splash today.
The Telegraph leads with “Hospitality chiefs urge PM to cut VAT” and the Express says “Labour tourist tax will hammer seaside B&Bs”. The i Paper’s headline is “Reform’s £۷۲m crypto bonanza sparks Labour donations row”, Metro says “Labour threat to Reform’s £۷۲m windfall”, while the Mirror’s take is “Bitcon?”. The FT’s splash is “Trump rejects industry calls for brake on AI over fears of losing race to China”.
The Sun has “Boris flees Vlad drone blitz”, the Mail asks “Did Putin drone target Boris and top security officials?”
Today in Focus
AI isn’t going to end humanity … right?
Ten per cent. That’s the risk, more or less, claimed a high-profile AI developer last week, that the technology wipes humanity out in the next decade. “I think it’s a crossover moment for the AI safety story because this has been for a long time talked about inside the AI world”, says our UK technology editor, Robert Booth, “but now, the general public and the political class have become increasingly concerned about it.” So how worried, asks Annie Kelly, should we be?
Cartoon of the day | Tom Gauld
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
“In bistros and cafes, people don’t just eat and drink, they catch up with each other, meet new people, debate, laugh, read, write and sometimes fall in love,” said Alain Fontaine of Paris’s Le Mesturet bistro. Yet where once there were an estimated ۵۰۰,۰۰۰ cafe-bistros dotted throughout France, there are now only about ۳۰,۰۰۰ to ۴۰,۰۰۰. But one group of local campaigners in the northern Burgundy community of Saint-Martin-sur-Ouanne has saved one such establishment, and in the process, make their village livable again.
After a successful community-led campaign to reopen it, Au Bon Acceuil cafe-bistro has been brought back to life – and every table is taken. As the village mayor, Hervé Chapuis, put it: “Our aim is to keep this kind of business open to support the social fabric. It’s part of village life and people missed it. Now, village life has returned to its proper rhythm.”
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
