Reform would have received a fraction of £26.7m donations haul under a £100,000 cap, analysis shows | Reform UK

Reform UK would have kept just 15% of the donations it received last year if the proposed £100,000 cap on political donations had been in place, according to analysis shared with the Guardian.

Friends of the Earth’s analysis, using Electoral Commission data, reveals the party is relying on a handful of wealthy backers ahead of a showdown over political funding.

It recorded donations between April 2025 and March 2026 and assumed union membership payments would be exempt from the cap, in line with recommendations made in the Phillips review of party finances.

The findings suggest that Reform UK would raise just £4.1 million between April 2025 and March 2026 if the £100,000 annual donation limit was applied, rather than the £26.7 million it actually received.

Reform’s average recorded donation last year was £137,496; this was almost six times higher than Labour’s £23,406 or the Conservatives’ £23,173 and 30 times higher than the Liberal Democrats’ average donation of £4,496.

By comparison, Labor would keep around three-quarters of its registered donations below the cap and raise £8.1 million instead of £10.8 million. The Conservative Party could have kept just over half its donations and received £8.3 million instead of £15.5 million. The Liberal Democrats would keep around 90% of their share, receive £5.2 million instead of £5.8 million, and the Greens would be unaffected by their £468,000 donation.

Reformation will no longer be Britain’s best-funded political party, analysis suggests. Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats could have raised more money in the same period.

The figures come ahead of the report stage on the public bill’s representation on Tuesday, when Stella Creasy, the Labor MP for Walthamstow, is expected to table an amendment that would impose a £100,000 cap on political donations from permitted donors. The proposal comes amid ongoing debate about the influence of wealthy donors in British politics.

The analysis also found that Reform received £20.4 million from donors who contributed at least £1 million each in the period analysed, while the Conservatives received £3.1 million and Labor received £2.6 million. The campaign group highlights that Labour’s total donations largely consist of union membership payments; He argues that these payments should be treated differently because they are financed through the political taxes of hundreds of thousands of individual union members rather than single wealthy supporters.

The campaign group said two billionaire donors – Christopher Harborne, Britain’s sixth richest person, and Ben Delo – accounted for 71% of Reform’s registered giving income last year.

British billionaire Harborne, who lives in Thailand, donated £15 million to the party. Harbone told the Telegraph in April that he believed he could challenge any donation caps in court and that he had not ruled out returning to the UK if law changes prevented him from donating while abroad.

A Reform spokesman said: “Reform UK fully complies with UK electoral law and the suggestion that legitimate donations from successful individuals are somehow less valid than, for example, funds from unions is absurd.

“Meanwhile, a cap on donations of £100,000 does nothing to improve democracy. It only restricts political participation while entrenching established parties that benefit from long-standing corporate funding networks.”

GMB, one of Britain’s largest unions, told affiliated Labor MPs not to vote for the ceiling. Party supporters are understood to have called MPs urging them to heed the union’s warning, causing some to drop their support for the border.

Asad Rehman, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, said: “Democracy should not be for sale. “When political parties rely on money from fossil fuel companies and other big polluters, this undermines trust that decisions are being made in the public interest.

“With the same parties calling for canceling climate action, expanding oil and gas drilling and weakening environmental protections, the stakes could not be higher.

“A meaningful cap on political donations would help level the playing field, making parties more accountable to the people they represent, not to their big checkbooks. Building a fairer, greener future depends on people trusting that our democracy works for everyone, not just the super-rich.”

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government The spokesman said: “We are already taking strong steps to combat foreign interference in our democracy by symbolically representing the People’s Bill, including limiting donations from overseas voters and banning donations via cryptocurrency.”