Unions move to back political cash reforms after Farage’s £72M haul

BRIGHTON, England — Britain’s trade unions are preparing to back a suite of changes to political finance rules after two cryptocurrency tycoons donated a record £72 million to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Unions had been lobbying the governing Labour Party — to which they gave around £5 million in 2025 — against introducing an annual cap on U.K.-based individual donors, on the basis that it could curb their donations too.

But in the wake of Reform’s unprecedented haul, unions are now planning to shift that position and back the idea of further reforms to both spending and donations, two senior union officials not authorized to speak publicly told POLITICO.

Farage — who is already facing investigations into his right-wing populist party’s funding sources — announced over the weekend that two cryptocurrency billionaires, Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, had donated £36 million each. 

Each of those donations was record-breaking in British politics, which currently sets no upper limit on what U.K.-based individuals can hand to a party. Together, they have reignited a row about Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s position on funding. He has so far held off on imposing a cap on domestic donations to political parties.

Both officials quoted above said the Trades Union Congress — which is this week hosting its annual conference in Brighton — is expected to issue a joint statement setting out an updated position on political financing, which could be released as soon as Tuesday. But the talks are politically delicate and the unions have not yet reached agreement.

One of the two senior officials said unions are likely to back a cap that applies to wealthy U.K.-based individuals and to trade unions, but — crucially — would be calculated in different ways for these two types of donor. 

That would mean that while wealthy individuals and unions would both be subject to donations caps, the rules would apply differently for each group.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner told union members Monday: “We will defend our democracy and society from any foreign dictator or fascist oligarch who seeks to divide our country and buy our politics — but we will never undermine the rights of working people to organize collectively and democratically.”

Separately, unions are also discussing whether to back a review of how political parties spend their money, both officials quoted above said. Party spending is currently regulated retrospectively for the year before an election, and limits tighten further in the final weeks.

This would mirror a move from the Labour government, which tasked the Electoral Commission earlier this summer with reviewing spending limits on political campaigning and reporting back by July 2027.

The first official quoted above said: “If that money’s already landed [with Reform] and it’s going to stay there, it’s about how much you can spend on, for example, social media advertising.”

Change of topic

The issue has dominated the start of the TUC’s annual gathering of 47 trade unions, 11 of which have formal financial ties to Labour. The TUC already opposes donations by overseas residents and those which are given in the form of cryptocurrency.

It has led to a fierce tussle between unions on the campaigning left, which want to take firmer action against mega-donations, and those closest to Labour that fear their own funding of the party will be undercut.

Some union officials also fear that supporting one set of rules for trade unions and a different set for wealthy individuals will be seized upon by opponents on the right. The first union official quoted above insisted they “wouldn’t describe it as a carve-out,” given rules would apply to both groups.

But Reform’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice has already accused Labour of “hyperventilating hypocrisy” for looking at changing the rules.

Union leaders spent Monday trying to emphasize the difference in the way unions and individuals fund political parties. Many union donations to Labour are paid in the form of “affiliation fees” from hundreds of thousands of individual members.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak told union members on Monday: “Let no one tell you there is any similarity between care workers chipping in a few quid a year through their union, and a party bought and paid for by billionaires.”

He later told ITV News: “You’ve got to design the rules in the right way. What we don’t want to do is exclude the voices of workers.” 

The debate was still ongoing behind closed doors at the TUC on Monday. Andrea Egan, the left-wing head of public services union UNISON, told BBC News “there shouldn’t be a cap on trade union donations” but added the details should be looked at. 

Back in Westminster, Labour MPs who have been pushing for a domestic cap were encouraged by the thawing of union opposition — but they are turning to the House of Lords to keep up the pressure on the government. 

Former justice minister, and Labour peer Michael Wills, is preparing to put forward his own amendment supporting their cause when the Bill reaches its next stage. 

He will take the baton from Stella Creasy, the MP whose amendment to introduce a £100,000 cap was not debated in the Commons after the government agreed to initiate a taskforce on the subject earlier this month. She said the weekend’s donations must represent a “wake-up call.”

Cap that

Questions remain over whether Reform will be able to accept the £72 million donations because both Delo and Harborne could be caught by the separate £100,000 cap on overseas donations that will be introduced under existing legislation. 

Delo has been living in Hong Kong, and Harborne in Thailand. Both planned to change their voter registration so they can still donate. But the law change will be backdated to March 25 this year — making that a crucial cut-off to avoid being hit by the cap.  

Farage hinted that the record-breaking donations might not survive the existing government proposals. 

In an interview, he told the BBC they are “100% compliant with the law today” — but declined to say, crucially, whether the donors were resident by the March 25 cutoff date. He criticized how the legislation will apply retrospectively.

Tice, Farage’s deputy, told GB News the legislation amounted to an attempt to “rig the system” against Reform. 

The attempt to curtail the donations comes as Reform faces controversy about money linked to the party on multiple fronts. Two of Farage’s closest advisers stepped down earlier this month after being caught in an undercover sting concerning donations.

Farage remains under separate investigation by parliamentary authorities over his alleged failure to declare a £5 million “gift” from Harborne before the 2024 general election — plus support from a convicted fraudster.