Lord Rennard
Liberal Democrat peer and former party chief executive Chris Rennard.
Lord Rennard told peers on 14 September 2026 that the two £36m gifts Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne made to Reform UK could fund a full national campaign at the legal spending limit twice over.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Lord Rennard
Mentioned in: Electoral Commission to review spend caps
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Delo and Harborne give Reform £72m
UK Local Elections 2026Background
Lord Rennard is a Liberal Democrat member of The House of Lords. As Chris Rennard he ran the party's campaigns and elections from 1989 to 2003, then served as its chief executive from 2003 to 2009. He became a life peer in 1999.
His name is closely tied to the Liberal Democrat by-election method: concentrated target-seat work, and persuading voters to rally behind whichever Challenger already sits in second place. That background gives him unusual authority on what money buys in an election.
He has brought that experience to the Lords debate on party funding, framing large donations in terms of the spending limits they could exceed.
Rennard ties big gifts to spending limits
At the Lords Second Reading of the Representation of the People Bill on 14 September 2026, Rennard set the Reform UK donations against the rules on what parties may spend. Each of the two gifts was worth £36m, and together, he argued, they would pay for a national campaign at the statutory ceiling twice.
The point drew on two decades spent running Liberal Democrat campaigns, and it joined two arguments the government had kept apart. Donation caps are being fought over in the Lords. Spending limits went to the Electoral Commission, which opened its review in September 2026 and is due to report in July 2027.