Robert Jenrick has said Reform UK believes £72m of donations it has received from two cryptocurrency billionaires are “entirely in line with the law”.
The party’s economic spokesman told the BBC that he does not expect that it will have to return any of the money from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, who are both British and have spent time living overseas.
The government is seeking to change the law on donations to UK political parties from British expats, including a £100,000 cap backdated to 25 March.
“These two donations are entirely in line with the law as it is and, as far as we know, the law as it’s going to be in the future,” Jenrick said.
Jenrick also told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “One of these two donors, Ben Delo, has actually returned to the UK, in part so that he can comply with the changes to the law.
“It might be that [Housing Secretary] Angela Rayner or the government keep trying to change the law to make it even harder for people to donate to Reform, nothing would surprise me.
“But, as it stands, we believe these are entirely in line with the law.”
Jenrick said the two donors – who each gave £36m to the party in two days – were “not buying anything, they simply support our agenda”.
Delo and Harborne’s donations now share the record for the largest ever given to a UK political party.
As well as limiting how much British citizens can donate to political parties from overseas, the government has proposed limiting how much those who move back to the UK can give to £100,000 in the year after they return.
The measures were added to the Representation of the People Bill after they were approved by MPs this month. The bill still needs to be scrutinised in the House of Lords.
Rayner, who also appeared on the programme, would not be drawn on whether the proposed changes would apply to Delo and Harborne, saying: “I don’t know the individual circumstances of those donors.”
She said the changes proposed by the government were “directly as a result” of a review by former top civil servant Philip Rycroft, published on 25 March.
Rayner said: “We said that because of the intention of the legislation and the recommendations, which we accepted, was known in the public domain that it would be retrospective to that date.
“That legislation is going through Parliament at the moment and we’ve also written to the Electoral Commission, which is an independent body, to see what further measures we need to take to protect our democracy.”
