Angela Rayner has warned Reform UK that its record £72m fundraising haul from two cryptocurrency billionaires could be caught by retrospective rules being pushed through parliament.

The housing secretary said new restrictions on political donations from Britons living abroad, or those who have recently returned to the UK, would be backdated as ministers seek to close what she described as loopholes in election funding.

Her comments follow crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne each handing Nigel Farage’s party £36m in the space of 24 hours – jointly the largest individual donations to a British political party on record.

The two cheques alone are worth more than the roughly £69m donated to all UK political parties combined last year.

Asked whether Reform could ultimately be forced to return the money, Rayner told Sky News it was a “really live question”. “We’re saying that if you don’t pay taxes in, you don’t live here, you can’t buy your way into our democracy because you’re a billionaire,” she said.

Rayner later told the BBC that new rules covering overseas donors and people who have recently returned to Britain “will be retrospective”.

The government’s Representation of the People Bill would cap donations from British citizens living overseas, as well as some recent returnees, at £100,000 a year, with the relevant provisions backdated to March. Whether either £36m gift is ultimately affected will depend on the donors’ status under the new rules.

Harborne has been based in Thailand for decades and also holds Thai citizenship, while Delo recently returned to Britain after living in Hong Kong.

Reform said both men were British citizens entitled to donate and that all donations complied with Electoral Commission rules and UK law.

The party’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said it had “no reason” to return the money and insisted the donations were lawful under both current rules and, as he understood them, forthcoming legislation.

“We’re very confident that these two donations are perfectly legal,” he told Sky News.

Reform goes on ‘election footing’

The £72m injection gives Reform a significant war chest as Farage attempts to turn polling momentum into the infrastructure needed to fight hundreds of constituencies at the next general election.

The party said it would hire as many as 400 campaign managers in target seats and recruit staff to work on policy, describing itself as now being on “election footing”.

Jenrick said the cash would allow Reform to become “battle ready” whether an election came within weeks or in two years.

Farage said he was “honoured and humbled” by the donations and argued they would finally allow Reform to fight the established parties on a “level playing field”/

Harborne is already one of Reform’s biggest financial backers and donated £9m to the party last year.

He said he expected “nothing” in return for his payment. “No peerage, no policy change, just a party that is ready for government,” he added.

Meanwhile, Delo co-founded cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX and was pardoned by Donald Trump last year after previously pleading guilty in the US to violating the Bank Secrecy Act.

He said his £36m contribution was intended to give Reform a “fair fight”, with the sum reportedly calculated at roughly £1m a month until the latest possible date of the next election.

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said Delo had paid the money upfront “so that the Labour Party can’t legislate against it”.

Shoould domestic political donations be capped?

There is currently no limit on how much a permissible UK-based donor can give a political party.

Labour MP Stella Creasy has proposed a £100,000 annual cap, while the Greens have backed a £500,000 limit. Transparency International UK said the two Reform donations had made an “irrefutable case” for restrictions.

Labour itself faces a political difficulty over any broad cap because of the millions it receives from trade unions.

Rayner defended the distinction on Sunday, arguing union funding ultimately came from “millions of ordinary members”.

Farage is already facing a parliamentary standards investigation over a separate £5m gift from Harborne made before he entered parliament in 2024, while the Metropolitan Police is examining allegations concerning Reform’s finances. Reform and Farage deny wrongdoing.

Labour chair Bridget Phillipson said Farage could not “buy his way out of the sleaze and scandal” surrounding the party.

Reform has rejected the attacks and insisted neither Delo nor Harborne has sought honours, contracts or policy concessions.