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Who funds Reform? Farage’s party bags £15m from crypto and finance donors
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Article by Ethan Shone republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
Darren Staples/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Reform has accepted more large donations than any other party in 2026, despite mounting funding scandals, new data shows
Nigel Farage’s party received large donations totalling almost £15m in the first six months of this year, according to Electoral Commission records, including millions of pounds from a crypto billionaire who was pardoned by Donald Trump last year.
Reform’s fundraising operations continue to prove highly effective in spite of its ongoing scandals. The party is amassing a massive financial war chest ahead of the next general election, which many in Westminster believe could take place as soon as next autumn.
The latest donations data comes as Reform suspends two senior aides pending an investigation, after an undercover sting exposed their alleged role in facilitating secret donations, including from impermissible donors overseas. Rival parties said they have reported Reform to the police, while the Electoral Commission said it is “considering all relevant information” and is “in touch with the Met Police”. Reform has denied any wrongdoing.
The events have overshadowed the party’s conference in Birmingham this weekend, and are the latest in a series of scandals the party has faced over its funding this year. In July, openDemocracy travelled to Montenegro to investigate the lives and business interests of key Reform allies and donors, including ‘Posh George’ Cottrell and billionaire crypto investor Christopher Harborne, in the glamorous coastal resort of Tivat.
At the same time, a number of news reports raised serious questions about Cottrell and Farage, after The Sunday Times reported the Clacton MP had failed to disclose in-kind support from the 32-year-old convicted fraudster. The allegations led to calls for an investigation by parliamentary authorities, which were already probing a £5m gift that Farage allegedly failed to declare having received from Harborne.
Reform’s crypto funding
The latest data shows Reform continues to bring in significantly more from large donations than the other parties: £5.3m in the second quarter of 2026, compared to £3.6m for Labour and £2.8m for the Conservatives.
That brings the party’s total donations this year to almost £15m, meaning it has accepted almost twice as much as Labour (£8m) and more than double the Conservatives (£7m).
Reform receives the vast majority of its funding from a small number of high-value donors, with Harborne, a crypto investor based in Thailand, by far the party’s most significant donor to date.
Now, the party has added another crypto billionaire with offshore links to its ranks of mega donors; Sheffield-born Ben Delo gave the party £4m in April, following two £2m donations in January and March.
British crypto entrepreneur Delo has rapidly become one of Reform UK’s largest individual donors, having given the party £8m across the first half of 2026 – £4m in each quarter. If he continues this trend throughout the rest of the year, he could surpass Harborne’s current total.
Delo is one of many Reform donors with strong interests in the crypto sector. He was a software engineer at IBM and later built high-frequency trading systems at JPMorgan and GSA Capital in Hong Kong, before co-founding cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX. In 2020, US federal authorities charged the BitMEX founders with violating the Bank Secrecy Act over inadequate anti-money-laundering controls; Delo pleaded guilty in 2022, paid a $10m penalty and served 30 months’ probation, which ended in December 2024. Trump pardoned him in March 2025.
Delo’s latest donations come after the government imposed a £100,000 cap on donations from overseas residents in March 2026. At the time, Delo said he would move back to the UK to sidestep the restriction, and he has reportedly signalled plans to keep funding the party from Britain going forward.
Big finance and former Tories
Reform also continues to add new donors with interests in the financial sector. Over the past year, senior figures in the party have engaged with lobbyists in the City of London, seeking both policy ideas and financial support.
Lucas Bitencourt, a young finance entrepreneur, gave the party £100,000, while private equity firm Bryden Capital gave £50,000 and a Jersey financial adviser who works with “the world’s first bitcoin investment fund” gave £25,000.
A Scottish corporate lawyer specialising in private equity and technology continues to provide funding, giving £100,000 in May. He has now given the party £300,000 in total.
An investment firm linked to Chelsea owner Todd Boehly – a significant donor to conservative politics in the US – also gave the party £75,000.
Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury spokesman, also received a significant donation after defecting to the party from the Conservatives. Jenrick received £50,000 from a donor with ties to financial services and crypto, Michael Cohen of Capital Group, an investment firm that the Wall Street Journal last year reported was “ploughing billions into crypto”.
Three former Tory donors continue to make up a significant portion of Reform’s funding base: Bassim Haidar, Johan Christofferson and Roger Nagioff all contributed six-figure sums in recent months and have now given over a million between them since the last election. Excluding Harborne, who gave Boris Johnson £1m in 2022, former Tory donors have given Reform over £3m since the 2024 vote.
Article by Ethan Shone republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
Nigel Farage is scathing at the £250,000 cost to the taxpayer of his unnecessary and ridiculous Clacton-on-Sea election campaign that he caused to avoid scrutiny and acccountability for the £5MILLION ‘gift’ that he didn’t declare.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage admits to being a whore willing to do anything for someone with a big fat wallet and asks whether drinking pints and smoking fags is not enough for the stupid plebs.
5 September 2026
Reform UK has a new target in its sights: Disabled people
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Article by Fazilet Hadi republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
Nigel Farage drinks a pint at The Ship pub in Clacton on 13 August 2026. Ben Montgomery/Getty Images
With its discriminatory plans for PIP and social housing, Farage’s party has made clear that we’re not part of its gang
Reform’s political statements are short, blunt and make crystal clear who it does and doesn’t want in its gang. So far, refugees and other foreign nationals have borne the brunt of the party’s hostility and vitriol, but in recent weeks, it has also turned the spotlight of rejection on Disabled people.
Last month, Nigel Farage’s party announced that, should it take power at the next election, it will abolish Personal Independence Payment (PIP). The benefit is paid to Disabled people who experience barriers to living independently, and there are around four million recipients across England and Wales, 83% of whom are of working age.
Having a disability adds an average of £1,095 a month to household bills, according to research by Scope, a disability charity. PIP recognises and contributes to these extra costs (although, even at its highest rate of £778.40 a month, it often doesn’t cover them in full). It helps pay for charging an electric wheelchair or turning the heating up in a cost-of-living crisis; for pre-prepared food and specific diets; for the specialised transport needed to hold down a job; for the essential personal care that enables a person to get out of bed in the morning, and any other support that allows Disabled people to live independently in their communities.
The vast majority of Disabled people don’t receive PIP; accessing the payment is widely recognised as an arduous, barrier-heavy process that often deters or denies the very people it is supposed to support. Rather than overhauling the system to reduce the unwieldy bureaucracy or fix the high error rates – two-thirds of PIP rejections are overturned at tribunal, with no new evidence presented in the vast majority of cases – Reform wants to scrap it altogether.
The party plans to provide payments only to an ill-defined group of Disabled people whom it deems most in need. The rest of us will be forced to go cap in hand to local authorities for support, much as Disabled people in the 19th century were required to depend on the charity of the parish. Rather than ‘saving taxpayer money’, as the party has claimed, such proposals will offload costs onto an already crumbling NHS and underfunded social care sector, while driving Disabled people towards institutionalised care.
The party’s attack on Disabled people hasn’t stopped there. Also last month, it said it would prioritise British-born working people under 35 for social housing, with additional preference given to married couples with children. The discriminatory divisiveness of this policy proposal is breathtaking. To base the allocation of scarce social housing on where a person was born, their employment status, age, or relationship status, rather than on their need, is unfair and unjust.
Entire sections of our society would effectively be excluded from social housing under the policy, including: older people, Disabled people of all ages who are unable to work due to impairments or health conditions, single people, and everyone born outside the UK, including those who have fled violence in their home countries.
These deeply divisive policy statements fail to provide the underlying analysis that led to the plans, or any vision for system change. The stats show that a large number of people on the social housing waiting list are Disabled people, so what is Reform’s rationale for turning their back on this real and sizeable need?
Disabled people already face significant societal disadvantages. Around half of those in poverty are disabled or have a Disabled person in the household. We experience physical and digital barriers to education and employment. Navigating the street can be challenging, and public transport is often a no-go zone. We are over-represented amongst homeless people, struggle to pay high rents in the private sector, often live in homes that are not accessible and are placed in inaccessible and inappropriate temporary accommodation for far too long.
So, how do the above Reform policy announcements address this kind of deep-rooted, long-standing discrimination? They don’t. The party has no plans to make society more inclusive and equal, no plans to make the social security system fairer and no plans to allocate social housing based on need. We’re just not part of its gang.
Article by Fazilet Hadi republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
Nigel Farage admits to being a whore willing to do anything for someone with a big fat wallet and asks whether drinking pints and smoking fags is not enough for the stupid plebs.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it’s simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
5 September 2026
Palestine activists appeal ‘unprecedented’ terror sentences
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https://youtu.be/gv24jq6vkA0
Palestine Action activists are appealing their unprecedented terrorism convictions. Their sentencing in June 2026 was the first time in British legal history that criminal damage convictions were sentenced as terrorism.
At a press conference in London, Simon Natas, the lawyer for Ellie Kamio, Charlotte Head, Fatema Zainab and Samuel Corner, told the press that in his 15 years working on similar cases, he would have been completely shocked if any of those were charged with a terrorism connection.
Also speaking were Emma and Sukaina – the mothers of Ellie and Fatema – as well as Dr James Smith and Dr Shahd Hammouri.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
5 September 2026
How this summer’s heat and drought impacted crops in Europe – in six charts
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Food and farming By: Orla Dwyer, Ho Woo Nam
A dried-out field of maize crops in Tarn-et-Garonne, France in August 2026. Credit: Abaca Press / Alamy Stock Photo
Farmers around Europe are dealing with the aftermath of a summer of extreme heat, drought and wildfires that were exacerbated by climate change.
Human-caused climate change is increasing the severity and likelihood of many extreme weather events around the world, which is increasing volatility for food producers.
This summer resulted in, for example, shrunken potatoes in the Netherlands, reduced carrot harvests in France, dried-up rice fields in Italy and scorched olive groves in parts of the Mediterranean region.
Global food prices are currently at their highest level since early 2023 due to “heatwaves and energy price dynamics”, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Other factors such as blocked fertiliser supplies in the Strait of Hormuz and high fuel costs have also played a role in this year’s agricultural outputs.
In the six charts below, Carbon Brief provides a snapshot of the impact this summer’s extremes are considered to have had on crop production and yields across Europe.
1. Most EU countries expect to see declines in cereal production this year
2. Most countries are recording reduced crop yields
3. Around €2bn worth of cereal losses after June heatwave
4. UK yields of wheat, barley and oats are all due to drop in 2026
5. Maize production in France is due to hit a four-decade low
6. Declines in EU grains since 2025
6. Declines in EU grains since 2025
1. Most EU countries expect to see declines in cereal production this year
Changes in cereal production in 26 EU countries between 2025 and 2026. Malta is excluded due to a lack of available data. Source: European Commission.
France, in particular, will see heavy losses in the amount of cereals – such as wheat, barley and oats – it produces this year, according to European Commission data.
French cereal production is expected to drop by almost 8 megatonnes (Mt) in 2026, compared to 2025.
The chart above shows that most European countries, aside from Bulgaria, will also see production losses this year.
Germany is due to see the second-largest losses in production, dropping by almost 4Mt compared to 2025.
Prof Til Feike, a cropping systems expert at the Julius Kühn-Institut, says many areas in Germany and Austria, as with other parts of Europe, have been “hit hard by a long-lasting dry period in combination with record-high heatwaves”.
This has resulted in dry grassland for animals and lower yields of maize, which is a “key fodder crop” for livestock. He tells Carbon Brief:
“In the long run, farming must adapt better to more extreme weather conditions, not only heat and drought, but also prolonged wet periods. So, there is no one-fits-all solution for climate change adaptation.”
2. Most countries are recording reduced crop yields
Heat and a lack of water have “substantially worsened” crop expectations this summer in western and most of central Europe, according to a recent bulletin from the EU Joint Research Centre.
Yields are expected to be “significantly reduced”, with local crop failures “likely” in areas such as France, southern Germany, northern and central Italy, and Hungary, it added.
The chart below shows that yields of cereal grains – which, here, refers to the tonnes of a grain grown per hectare of land – are expected to fall in most EU countries in 2026.
Changes in cereal yields in 26 EU countries between 2025 and 2026. Malta is excluded due to a lack of available data. Source: European Commission.
Slovakia, Austria and Hungary are expected to see the largest declines in cereal yields, reducing by more than one tonne per hectare in 2026 compared to 2025.
The recent EU bulletin noted that irrigated crops performed well in Portugal this summer – the country with the largest yield increases. Other crops relying on rainfall showed growing signs of heat stress, it added.
3. Around €2bn worth of cereal losses after June heatwave
The record heatwave that hit many parts of Europe in June contributed to an estimated €2-2.3bn in cumulative grain production losses, as shown in the chart below.
Estimates of revenue lost due to changes in production forecasts between June and July 2026. Source: ECIU.
The intense June heat in western Europe would have been “virtually impossible” just 50 years ago, according to a rapid climate attribution study. It was the region’s hottest June on record.
The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) thinktank analysed June and July 2026 grain forecasts from Coceral, a European grain traders association.
ECIU estimated lost supply by multiplying the change in tonnes of grains between these two months by prices for harvest delivery in 28 European countries.
Major grain producers France, Germany, Hungary and Spain accounted for 86% of the lost revenue, according to the ECIU.
Extreme heat is also expected to have a wider economic impact across the continent. Analysis from Triodos Bank found that this summer’s extreme weather could reduce the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) by around 1% this year, or around €180bn.
4. UK yields of wheat, barley and oats are all due to drop in 2026
If current trends continue, the average yields for cereals and oilseeds will result in the UK’s worst harvest since detailed records began in 1984, according to ECIU.
Yields of cereals and oilseed rape in the UK over 1990-2026. Source: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.
Barley yields could fall by 15%, oats by 14% and wheat yields by 6% year-on-year, according to 2026 harvest surveys from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, a non-departmental public body that provides agricultural data to the UK government.
ECIU said that, even if the situation improves, this year is still expected to be one of the five worst harvests on record. This means that four of the five worst harvests in the UK have occurred in the past decade.
Consumers will likely see higher prices and/or smaller vegetables in supermarkets as a result, Tim O’Malley, chairman of UK company Nationwide Produce, told BBC News in August.
Other crops, such as berries, have grown successfully in the extreme heat. But the Guardian noted fears this could dip later this year “as plants become exhausted from heavy cropping during the heatwave”.
5. Maize production in France is due to hit a four-decade low
France has been acutely affected by this summer’s extreme weather, with more than 7,300 excess deaths during heatwaves and a record number of weather stations recording temperatures of above 40C.
The country is the EU’s largest agricultural producer, but heat, drought and wildfires have affected many crops.
The chart below shows that maize production is set to drop by more than one-third (35%) year-on-year.
Maize production in France over 1980-2026. Source: Agreste.
This could result in France’s lowest maize production since 1980, according to data from Agreste, the country’s agriculture ministry’s statistics service.
Due to the heat, “record-early” grape harvests have also been recorded in various parts of the nation since mid-July, reported Le Monde. In some cases, this means “smaller, less juicy grapes, which will yield less wine”, explained the newspaper.
6. Declines in EU grains since 2025
Production of cereal crops in Europe over 1993-2026. The “other” category includes oats, rye, sorghum, millet and buckwheat. Source: European Commission.
Overall in the EU, data and projections indicate declines in the output of cereal grains this year.
Cereal production is set to fall by 9% compared to 2025, according to the European Commission.
Just one year in the past decade – 2024 – recorded lower production levels.
Maize production is set to be particularly affected, with projections indicating a 13% drop, to 52Mt – the lowest level in the EU since 2007.
4 September 2026
Analysis: UK solar power hits record high over summer 2026
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Renewables By: Molly Lempriere, Ho Woo Nam
Aerial view of a solar farm in England. Credit: Elevate Drones / Alamy Stock Photo
Solar power generation in the UK reached a new record over the summer of 2026, as temperatures across the nation soared, according to new analysis by Carbon Brief.
Collectively over June, July and August, solar farms and rooftops generated 8.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in the UK*, as shown in the chart below.
Speaking to Carbon Brief, Chris Hewett, chief executive of trade association Solar Energy UK welcomed the new record, adding that it was driven by “clear skies and continued growth in deployment”.
This surge in generation took place amid the hottest summer on record in the UK, with five heatwaves between May and August.
Summer 2026 was the sixth sunniest on record, with more than 620 hours of sunshine, according to the Met Office. England and Wales – which experienced the most extreme heat – saw their second-sunniest summers on record.
June 2026 was the hottest June in England since records began in 1884, according to Met Office data, while Wales and the UK as a whole experienced their second-warmest June.
It was the driest July for England and Wales since records began in 1836, with some parts of London seeing no rain at all in the month, while Wisley in Surrey had no rain for 62 days.
In England, temperatures peaked at 38.1C at Kew Gardens in London on 13 August.
According to the Met Office, this summer’s record mean temperature was made 130 times more likely by climate change.
Amid these hot and sunny months, solar power generation increased 23% from the same period in 2025. This is double the level of solar generation over the summer of 2021, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
While solar panels can be affected by periods of extreme heat, the longer hours of daylight and higher levels of irradiation over the summer more than offset any efficiency losses.
June, July and August all saw solar set new monthly records for solar generation – July saw the highest solar generation in a calendar month ever, with 3.3TWh meeting 15% of overall electricity demand for the month.
As of the end of August, the total UK solar generation in 2026 stood at 17TWh – 13% higher than the same point in 2025.
The number of solar farms and rooftop installations has grown substantially in recent years, helping to boost generation. Domestic rooftop solar accounts for around 29% of total capacity.
In 2025, the UK’s solar capacity reached 21 gigawatts (GW) by the third quarter of the year, according to UK government figures. This is a jump of 3GW, or 18%, year-on-year, as Carbon Brief reported in January.
(Capacity is the maximum output possible from an electricity generation, whereas generation is what was produced over a certain time period, such as a day, month or year.)
According to the University of Sheffield, the installed solar capacity is now nearly 24GW.
This includes nearly 172,000 solar installations that have been fitted across the UK since the start of 2026, according to recent government figures. In July alone, more than 19,800 rooftop solar panels were installed – the equivalent of one installation every two minutes.
In total, nearly 1.7m households in the UK now have solar panels installed.
Over 26 heatwave days this summer – periods of at least three days when temperatures exceed the Met Office’s county-level heatwave temperature threshold – UK households with rooftop solar panels avoided an estimated £86.7m in electricity costs, according to analysis by Utility Bidder.
Talking about the surge in solar generation this summer, Hewett says:
“[It] not only kept bills down for people with solar and batteries in their homes, but helped keep overall power prices much lower than they would have been if Britain had been relying on more gas generation during the day”.
Despite the record generation, no new half-hourly solar power output record was set in the summer of 2026. This still stands at 15.2 megawatts (MW) on 23 April 2026.
* This article refers to the UK throughout, but strictly relates to the island of Great Britain, made up of England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is part of the separate, all-Ireland electricity system.
4 September 2026

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