Reform’s Robert Jenrick ‘very confident’ £72m donations are ‘perfectly legal’ – UK politics live
Party’s economic spokesperson says donations are a ‘breakthrough moment’ as Labour’s Angela Rayner warns of possible retrospective actionReform UK’s £72m donations may be caught by new bill, Rayner suggestsChristopher Harborne matches £36m Reform donation of Ben DeloAnalysis: Donations of £72m make Reform’s prospects both rosier and riskierReform has been describing these crypto billionaire donations – again the largest single gift to a British political party – as being from patriotic businessmen who “simply support our agenda”.Pressed by Laura Kuennsberg on the BBC: “And part of your agenda is being very pro cryptocurrency, which is their business?” Jenrick replies, “Um, not really”, saying first that he wants “proper” regulation of the digital currency which is a bit of a “Wild West”, and then advancing to the idea of gains for the UK in adopting crypto. Throughout this morning, he’s been referring to himself as Reform Shadow Chancellor.“Is there an economic opportunity for the UK from crypto? Yes, and I want, as Reform Shadow Chancellor of UK, to seize that so we can compete with Dubai and the United States.” Continue reading...
Over on Sky, Conservative Tom Tugendhat was asked if the Tories were “rattled” by the money going into Reform. He says he “welcomes people supporting political activity” in a democracy- at this point, Sky’s Rachel Johnson cuts in – “even crypto billionaires who live in Thailand?” (referring to Harbourne). Tugendhat then switches to his second point – the persistent murkiness over where Reform’s funds come from. He raises the issue of due diligence, noting it’s a legal requirement for each party to rigorously check the sources of their donations and highlights that Reform has faced allegations this past week after a Channel 4 undercover investigation appeared to show Farage’s senior aides attempting to circumvent the rules to accept an otherwise illegal injection of foreign funding.
(Reform denies the allegations but Farage’s chief of staff and head of policy have stepped down and Labour has asked police to investigate possible offences. The Electoral Commission is also considering the