Ben Delo, 42, already pumped £4m into Nigel Farage’s party (Image: Dave Benett Collection)
A British cryptocurrency billionaire has reportedly announced he is uprooting himself from Hong Kong and returning to the UK — with the sole purpose of pouring millions more into Reform UK’s election campaign.
Ben Delo, 42, pumped £4m into Nigel Farage’s party before Keir Starmer‘s government moved to cap overseas donations at £100,000. According to reports, Delo is convinced the legislation was drawn up with him and fellow Reform backer Christopher Harborne in mind — Harborne has channelled £12m to the party from Thailand and now faces the same restrictions.
Delo has gone public with his intentions, setting out his plan to return to British soil, resume donating without limit and give Reform the financial firepower to mount a serious challenge at the next general election.
“For Labour, sitting on its cushion of trade union funding, the idea that someone might create a level playing field by giving Reform as much money to spend as the other parties is intolerable,” he is said to have written.
He allegedly branded Starmer’s manoeuvre a “tinpot” power play and expressed hope that other wealthy Britons abroad would follow his lead — returning home to deny the Government the advantage it was seeking.
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Who is Ben Delo?
Delo built his fortune by co-founding BitMEX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, having previously cut his teeth at two of the biggest names in global finance, reports the Telegraph. He studied at Oxford and grew up in Sheffield.
Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in childhood, the Express understands he has spoken openly about how the condition shapes his worldview. A 2022 guilty plea in the United States — relating to compliance failures at BitMEX — might have defined his public profile, but a presidential pardon from Donald Trump wiped the slate clean as far as his supporters are concerned.
Away from politics, Delo has quietly become one of Britain’s more significant private philanthropists. Over the past eight years his foundation has reportedly directed £100m towards charitable causes, including a £25m gift in February to the Sheila Coates Foundation, which supports young people with autism.
Delo told reporters his condition gives him a particular intolerance for political doublespeak. He pointed to the prosecution of Declan Armstrong — a Welsh teenager with autism who received a hate speech conviction in 2020 after asking a simple question about a transgender police officer’s biological sex — as evidence that mainstream political language has become impossible for neurodiverse people to navigate.
He reserves praise for Farage’s directness and contempt for ministers who, the report states, deliberately dress up economic decline as progress by citing headline GDP growth while ignoring the per capita figures that tell the real story — all while choosing to “paper over the cracks with immigration.”
Reform’s finances
The timing of Delo’s return matters. Reform pulls in more cash from individual donors than any other British party, but the departure of Harborne from the eligible donor pool has opened a hole in its funding base that Delo has explicitly volunteered to fill.
Outside the strictly controlled windows around election campaigns, there is no ceiling on what a political party can spend — particularly on staffing. Delo’s millions could allow Reform to build a professional operation capable of competing with parties that have decades of institutional infrastructure behind them.
Farage is reported to have said: “Our priority is to build a detailed programme for government so, if we are elected, we have the right policies in place to get Britain back on its feet as quickly as possible.
“Ben’s support will help Reform attract more of the skills and talents we need to get ready for government. Moreover, it is particularly gratifying to me personally, that someone like Ben, a builder and a visionary and a problem-solver, who has spent a lifetime grasping trends before other people do, sees the potential of Reform.”
May elections
The money arrives as forecasters predict Reform is on the cusp of a result that would rewrite the record books. Steve Fisher, one of Britain’s leading electoral analysts, has modelled a net gain of 2,260 seats in the May 7 contests across England, Wales and Scotland. For context, Tony Blair’s Labour took 1,661 seats in the 1995 local elections — a performance widely credited with signalling the scale of the 1997 landslide. Reform’s projected haul would surpass it comfortably.
In Wales, the party is on course to finish second in the Senedd behind Plaid Cymru. In Scotland, it is expected to draw level with the Scottish Greens for third place at Holyrood.
Jeremy Hildreth, a friend who has known Delo for 25 years, told The Telegraph: “Ben has never considered himself to be particularly political. He’s fundamentally a philanthropist. But he’s analysed the national situation and concluded, ‘What’s the point in philanthropy if the country goes down the tubes?'”
Expat billionaire vows UK return just to ‘build Nigel Farage’s war chest’
A British cryptocurrency billionaire has become one of the most significant financial supporters of Reform UK after pledging to return to Britain and contribute millions of pounds to Nigel Farage’s political campaign.
Ben Delo, co-founder of cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX, announced in April that he intended to move back to the UK after the Government introduced new restrictions on political donations from British citizens living overseas. At the time, Delo said he wanted to continue supporting Reform UK and help build what he described as the party’s “war chest”.
Since then, the scale of his financial involvement has increased dramatically.
In September 2026, Reform UK confirmed that Delo had donated a further £36 million to the party. The donation was reported as the largest single political donation ever made to a British political party, taking his total contributions to Reform to £40 million when his earlier £4 million donation is included.
The development has put Delo at the centre of Britain’s increasingly heated debate about political funding, overseas wealth and the role of major individual donors in elections.
From Hong Kong to Britain
Delo had been based in Hong Kong for many years after building his fortune through the cryptocurrency industry.
His decision to return to Britain was initially linked directly to proposed restrictions on political donations from British citizens living overseas.
In April, he argued that the Government’s planned £100,000 annual limit on donations from overseas-based British citizens created what he called a “rigged game”. He said he would move back to Britain so he could contribute more to Reform’s political budget.
Delo had already donated £4 million to Reform earlier in 2026.
In an article published at the time, he said that he had become politically active because he believed Britain’s political establishment was failing to address problems facing the country. He specifically described his £4 million contribution as helping Farage build Reform into what he called a genuine alternative party of government.
His subsequent donations have made that initial contribution look relatively small.
The £36 million donation
The latest development came in September, when Reform announced that Delo had donated £36 million.
The contribution came only days after another cryptocurrency entrepreneur, Christopher Harborne, gave Reform a separate £36 million.
Together, the two donations amounted to £72 million, an unprecedented sum in British political finance.
Delo said his purpose was to help create what he regarded as a more equal financial environment for political competition.
According to Sky News, he said he wanted Reform to have a “level playing field” and argued that the party should be able to compete financially with the established political parties.
The timing of the donations is particularly important because Parliament has been considering changes to the rules governing political donations from people who live overseas.
Reform argues that the proposed restrictions unfairly affect its supporters. The Government says the measures are intended to reduce the potential for foreign influence in British politics.
What does the new legislation mean?
The debate centres partly on who should be treated as an eligible British political donor.
Following an independent review led by former senior civil servant Sir Philip Rycroft, the Government proposed restrictions on donations from British citizens living overseas.
The proposed legislation would impose a £100,000 limit on donations by certain overseas electors and would also establish residency requirements for people returning to Britain before they can be treated as domestic donors for these purposes.
Rycroft said the proposed rules would require someone returning to Britain to live in the UK for at least a full calendar year before being treated as a domestic donor under the relevant provisions.
The purpose, according to Rycroft, is to make it more difficult for money based overseas to influence British political parties without sufficient connection to the UK.
Reform has strongly criticised the approach.
Deputy leader Richard Tice has maintained that the party’s donations were compliant with the rules in force when they were received. He has also criticised the proposed retrospective aspects of the legislation.
The Government, however, argues that retrospective provisions are necessary to prevent large donations being made immediately before new restrictions take effect. Schools minister Georgia Gould said the Government had deliberately designed the rules in that way for that reason.
Farage welcomes the billionaire’s support
Farage has openly welcomed Delo’s financial backing.
In September, the Reform leader described the combined £72 million donations from Delo and Harborne as an investment in what he called “democratic renewal”.
Farage said the money would allow Reform to strengthen its research operation, develop and cost policies and employ professional organisers in constituencies where the party wants to build support.
He has also said the party intends to use the money over the period leading to the next general election.
According to Farage’s account, Delo and Harborne had initially considered providing £1 million a month until the latest possible date of the next general election in 2029. They subsequently decided to provide the money in a single payment.
Sky News reported that Richard Tice confirmed the money had been provided upfront and said the party intended to spend it over the next two to three years, including on campaign managers.
That could give Reform significantly more organisational capacity than it has previously possessed.
Building a national political machine
Money alone does not guarantee electoral success, but it can enable a party to build the infrastructure required for national campaigning.
Reform has already made significant advances at local level during 2026. Its leadership now wants to translate that presence into a more permanent organisation capable of operating across parliamentary constituencies.
Farage has said the new funding will be used for research, policy development and professional campaign staff.
That represents an important change in emphasis.
For much of its existence, Reform has been heavily associated with Farage himself and with high-profile media campaigning. A larger organisation would allow the party to devote more resources to local candidates, constituency campaigning, voter contact and policy preparation.
The Guardian reported that Delo had previously provided financial and logistical support to a wider network of political figures and organisations, including access to facilities in Westminster. His lawyers have said that providing support or space to organisations does not necessarily mean that he endorses all of their views.
Delo’s background
Delo’s involvement has also attracted scrutiny because of his history in the cryptocurrency industry.
He co-founded BitMEX, one of the world’s major cryptocurrency derivatives platforms.
In 2022, Delo pleaded guilty in the United States to violating the Bank Secrecy Act over failures in the company’s anti-money-laundering programme. He was sentenced to probation and fined $10 million. He was subsequently pardoned by US President Donald Trump.
Those facts have been widely reported in connection with his political donations, but they are separate from the question of whether his contributions to Reform comply with UK electoral law.
Reform has maintained that its donations are lawful.
The party’s position is that its compliance procedures have been used to ensure donations are accepted in accordance with the relevant rules.
The wider political-finance controversy
The Delo donation has arrived during an unusually intense debate about the financing of British political parties.
The £72 million combined contribution from Delo and Harborne is unprecedented in scale.
Critics argue that donations of this size give wealthy individuals an influence that ordinary voters cannot exercise. Supporters of large private donations, meanwhile, argue that individuals should be entitled to support political parties whose programmes they favour, provided the donations comply with electoral law.
The Government’s proposed restrictions are intended to address concerns about overseas influence.
Reform sees the proposals differently. Farage has argued that the party is being subjected to rules designed to limit its ability to challenge Labour and the Conservatives.
In his September statement, Farage argued that the £72 million would help address what he regards as a financial imbalance between Reform and the established parties.
That interpretation is disputed by the Government and other political parties.
The disagreement is therefore not simply about one billionaire or one political party. It concerns a fundamental question about the relationship between private wealth and democratic participation.
A remarkable change from April
The scale of Delo’s involvement has changed considerably since his original announcement in April.
At that time, the story was that a British billionaire living in Hong Kong intended to return home so that he could continue making large political contributions.
He had given Reform £4 million and said he wanted to build its “war chest”.
Five months later, the picture is very different.
Delo has now provided Reform with a further £36 million, bringing his reported total to £40 million. His contribution has become one of the most consequential examples of individual political giving in modern British politics.
At the same time, Reform has received another £36 million from Harborne.
The result is a £72 million financial injection that the party says will be used to prepare for the next general election.
What happens next?
The political and legal questions surrounding the donations are unlikely to disappear.
Parliament is continuing to consider legislation affecting overseas political donations and cryptocurrency funding. The proposed rules have already generated disagreement between the Government, Reform and other political organisations.
Meanwhile, Reform has to decide how to convert its new financial resources into a functioning nationwide campaign operation.
Farage has said that the party will invest in research, policy development and professional organisers.
Whether those investments translate into electoral gains is ultimately a matter for voters and cannot be determined from the size of a donation alone.
What is already clear is that Ben Delo has moved from being a relatively little-known political donor to one of the most financially significant figures in Reform UK’s history.
His decision to return to Britain was initially presented as a response to proposed restrictions on overseas donations. Months later, his financial support has reached a scale rarely seen in British politics.
For Farage, the money provides Reform with resources for a much larger political operation. For critics, it raises questions about the influence that extremely wealthy individuals should have over political parties.
And for Parliament, the Delo donations have added urgency to an existing debate over how Britain should regulate political money in an era when individual fortunes can reach extraordinary levels.
The “war chest” that Delo promised in April is no longer simply a political slogan. With £40 million donated by Delo alone, and £72 million from the two major cryptocurrency donors combined, Reform now has a level of financial backing that has fundamentally changed the conversation about how the party prepares for Britain’s next general election.
