# The £72m question Labour keeps ducking > Two crypto billionaires handed Reform UK £72m in a weekend, and now Labour's own side is demanding a cap on domestic donations. - Title: The £72m question Labour keeps ducking · the Guardian - Summary: Two crypto billionaires handed Reform UK £72m in a weekend, and now Labour's own side is demanding a cap on domestic donations. The elections bill caps… - Keywords: party funding, reform uk, labour, donations cap, trade unions, news, world, 72m, question, keeps, ducking, the Guardian - Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/13/reform-uk-donations-new-bill-retrospective-effect-angela-rayner - Published: 2026-09-13T17:50:08+00:00 - Read time: 2 min - Topics: party funding, reform uk, labour, donations cap, trade unions, news, world ## £72m lands in a weekend Two crypto billionaires, Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, gave Reform UK £36m each. Reform says every penny of it is within the law. ## Burnham holds the line The PM once backed caps on domestic donations. He has declined to put any into the elections bill now heading back to the Lords. ## Labour MPs vent on WhatsApp Backbenchers are angry the government let the bill pass the Commons last week without restricting domestic money, days before the Reform windfall. ## Both donors lived abroad Harborne holds UK and Thai citizenship. Delo recently moved back from Hong Kong. When he returned, and whether Harborne still lives in Thailand, is unclear. ## Rayner points to a future bill The communities secretary suggested the donations could be caught by new rules applying retrospectively to donors based outside the UK. > This is an issue that has been raised about protecting our democracy from foreign interference ## Not the right vehicle A No 10 source said ministers won't delay a bill that gives 16-year-olds the vote, but promised the argument isn't finished. > not the right vehicle but this is not the end of the story ## The union slippery slope Unions, GMB especially, blocked a domestic cap, fearing a future right-wing government would use the same power to choke union donations to Labour. ## The union wall cracks Unite now backs a cap on individual donors. Unison's Andrea Egan said the movement will fight Farage's billionaire backers every step of the way. > For individual donors there must be a cap ## A £100,000 ceiling Stella Creasy's amendment would cap most domestic donations at £100,000 a year. It never reached a vote once ministers promised a taskforce review. ## Peers get another shot Creasy is working with peers to revive the cap in the Lords. Labour's Michael Wills wants the government to name a deadline for its review. > it offers an unmissable opportunity to say when that review will complete its work ## Rich donors want limits too John Caudwell, a 2019 Tory donor, and Labour backer Dale Vince both called for a cap. Vince wants publicly funded politics as the end goal. > Ridiculous sums of money don't level the playing field, they distort it ## Reform says bring it on The party is "100% confident" the money is safe even under the new rules. Robert Jenrick called it a breakthrough that makes Reform battle ready. > No one wants the UK to become a country for hire in the way Reform is clearly a party for hire ## Key takeaway The elections bill caps foreign money but leaves UK-based donors untouched, so the £72m that triggered the row would sail straight through it.