Wealthy individuals have donated £179 million to UK political parties since 2019, according to analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Donations of more than £1 million have become far more common. Between 2001 and 2018, such gifts from individuals averaged £3.9 million a year. From 2019 to 2025, the annual average rose to £13.1 million. That rise is far greater than inflation would explain.
The £179 million total includes two donations announced this month: £36 million each from Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo to Reform UK. Together, those two gifts account for about 40 per cent of the sum identified by IPPR.
Reform’s windfall has brought the issue into focus, but the figures cover donors to several parties. They show how much campaign funding can now depend on a small number of people.
Million-pound donations are becoming routine
IPPR used Electoral Commission records dating back to 2001, alongside analysis by Transparency International and the two recent Reform donations. It found that 72 per cent of all donations of more than £1 million from individuals since records began have arrived since 2019.
The earlier period includes years when a seven-figure gift would have been major political news. Now two donors have each given Reform £36 million within days of one another.
Harborne was already a substantial political donor. He gave £10 million to the Brexit Party in 2019. Around the same time, David Sainsbury gave £8 million to the Liberal Democrats. He has since returned to supporting Labour.
The Conservatives received more than £20 million from businessman Frank Hester before the 2024 election. Labour donor Gary Lubner has given his party more than £9 million in total. Reform argues that established parties have long benefited from large gifts and that its new funding helps it build an organisation capable of competing with them.
The concentration is visible beyond individual donors. The Guardian found that in 2023, almost £7 in every £10 of reported private donations to parties came from companies or individuals giving more than £1 million over the year.
Harry Quilter-Pinner, IPPR’s executive director, said “million-pound donations were once exceptional” and described the growing dependence on wealthy backers as the “Americanisation of British politics”. He called for an annual £100,000 limit on donations from any individual.
What Reform’s £72m changes
The Daily Britain reported when Delo and Harborne announced their donations. Both have argued that Reform needs the money to match the staff and campaign infrastructure built by older parties. Harborne said he expected no personal reward, policy change or peerage in return.
The money gives Reform scope to hire staff and plan campaigns well before an election is called. Farage has discussed putting campaign managers into hundreds of target constituencies. The Electoral Commission is also reviewing spending limits, including rules covering campaigning between elections. That review began before the £72 million was announced and has produced no recommendation to cut the limits.
There is currently no general cap on how much an eligible individual can give a UK party. A party must check that it can lawfully accept a donation and report it under the applicable rules. The argument raised by IPPR is about how much one donor should be permitted to give, even when a donation meets those requirements.
Some Labour MPs favour limits of £100,000 or £500,000 a year. A wider cap would affect every party, including Labour, and has met resistance from trade unions concerned that it could restrict their own contributions. Labour figures are expected to press the issue at the party conference and when the elections bill reaches the Lords.
The proposed cap has narrower scope
The government has proposed a £100,000 annual cap on donations from overseas electors through its Representation of the People Bill. Its published response to the Rycroft Review says the measure would also cover certain people who have recently moved to Britain. The bill is still before Parliament; the cap should not be described as a general limit already in force.
That proposal deals with a narrower question than the one IPPR has raised. A limit on overseas donors would not prevent an eligible long-term UK resident from giving millions.
Ministers have promised further work on the influence of mega-donors. IPPR and other campaigners want a decision on an annual cap. For now, parties can accept enormous gifts from individual donors, and the £179 million figure shows how often they have done so.
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