PA Media
UK and Ireland national news agency, founded 1868 as the Press Association.
PA Media broke the news of Reform UK's two £36m gifts in September 2026, Ben Delo's on 11 September and Christopher Harborne's a day later; the Electoral Commission will not publish either until early December.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for PA Media
Mentioned in: Burnham pledges to change voting system
UK Local Elections 2026Mentioned in: Delo and Harborne give Reform £72m
UK Local Elections 2026Background
PA Media is The National News agency for the United Kingdom and Ireland, based in London. It was founded in 1868 as the Press Association and adopted its present name in 2018. Newspaper publishers, national and regional, hold most of the shares in its parent, PA Media Group.
The agency supplies copy, pictures and data to newsrooms across both countries. Through PA Elections it provides results feeds to UK broadcasters on election nights, which makes it part of the machinery of British political coverage.
Its political desk also breaks stories of its own. In September 2026 it was the agency that disclosed two £36m gifts to Reform UK, and in early October it carried Kemi Badenoch's rejection of Labour's electoral reform commission.
PA Media reports Reform's £72m windfall
PA Media reported on 11 September 2026 that Ben Delo had given Reform UK £36m, and on 12 September that Christopher Harborne had matched the sum. Citing The Telegraph, the agency said Delo's money arrived upfront and was meant to cover the years to 2029.
Because the Electoral Commission publishes donations quarterly, the agency's reports are for now the main public account of the gifts: the July-to-September register does not appear until early December. The coverage ran alongside a Metropolitan Police statement that reports about donations and polling involving a party, raised after a Channel 4 News programme on Reform, needed investigating.