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UK Local Elections 2026
3JUN

Delo's £4m arrived as cash, not crypto

3 min read
10:25UTC

Reform UK's two biggest gifts of the quarter both came from Ben Delo, a pardoned BitMEX co-founder: £1,000,000 on 17 April and £3,000,000 on 30 April, both in cash.

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PoliticsAssessed
Key takeaway

Reform's largest donor gave £4m in cash, a form the Bill's new crypto ban does not reach.

The Electoral Commission published its register of party donations for the second quarter of 2026 on Thursday 3 September. Reform UK's two largest gifts of the quarter both came from Ben Delo: £1,000,000 accepted on 17 April and £3,000,000 accepted on 30 April, each recorded as cash⁠1.

Delo was born in Sheffield in 1984 and co-founded the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX. He pleaded guilty in 2022 to a charge under the US Bank Secrecy Act over the exchange's anti-money-laundering failures and received 30 months' probation. Donald Trump pardoned him in March 2025, and he returned to the UK from Hong Kong around April 2026⁠2. The register carries no earlier UK political donation in his name⁠3.

Parties accepted £17,085,354 in total across the quarter, and Reform took £5,437,360 of it, ahead of every other party⁠4. The Conservative Party reported £4,039,317, the Labour Party £3,609,664, Restore Britain £250,000 and the Green Party £220,890⁠5. Delo's two cheques account for 74% of everything Reform accepted between April and June, a concentration no other party in the release approaches. Lose that one donor and the party loses three quarters of a quarter's income.

The ban the Commons wrote into the finance Bill the evening before the register appeared catches donations made in cryptoassets. It does not catch a cash gift from a person whose fortune came out of a crypto exchange, which is what the register records⁠6. Nothing on the record suggests anyone arranged that: the gifts were accepted in April, reported in July, and the clause was written in September. No entry from Christopher Harborne appears among the twenty largest gifts of the quarter⁠7, the donor whose undeclared £5m gift left the standards inquiry frozen when Farage quit the Commons, and the police inquiry into the Cottrell donations runs on separately.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Every three months, UK political parties have to tell the Electoral Commission, the independent body that regulates elections and party money, who gave them large donations. This report covers April to June 2026. Reform UK took in more money than any other party, £5.44m, and £4m of that came from one man, Ben Delo, a co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX. He gave the money in cash, not in cryptocurrency, so it was not covered by the new ban on crypto donations Parliament had just written into law. Delo pleaded guilty to a US money-laundering compliance offence in 2022 and was pardoned by President Trump in 2025.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The Bill's new clause treats any cryptocurrency donation as coming from an impermissible donor; it targets the form of the gift, not the wealth behind it, so a donor who gives cash sits outside it regardless of where the money came from.

The Electoral Commission has already said it cannot verify Reform UK's crypto wallet addresses because the party's processor, Radom Pay, operates from Poland outside FCA regulation; that verification gap does not apply to cash gifts, which the register can trace, but it shows why regulators focused Reform effort on the asset type rather than tracing donors' wider financial history.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    A donor can route crypto-derived wealth into UK politics as cash and remain entirely outside the new ban, since the law targets the instrument, not the source.

  • Precedent

    Delo's gifts set a template other crypto-wealthy donors could follow once the ban takes effect: liquidate first, then donate in cash.

Sources:Electoral Commission·Electoral Commission
Mentions:Electoral Commission →Reform UK →Conservative Party →Labour Party →Restore Britain →Green Party →Ben Delo →Christopher Harborne →Donald Trump →Parliament →BitMEX →Bank Secrecy Act →Sheffield →Spotlight on Corruption →Hong Kong →Nigel Farage →Radom Pay →
First Reported In

Update #17 · Reform's £4m arrived as cash, not crypto

Electoral Commission· 3 Sept 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
This Event
Delo's £4m arrived as cash, not crypto
The register shows a crypto fortune entering party finance as cash, a form the Bill's new ban does not reach.
Led to
Delo and Harborne give Reform £72m
Delo's new gift follows his earlier Reform UK donations recorded on the Q2 register.
Occurred 11 Sept 2026
Read story →
Peers table 160 changes to voting Bill
Cash gifts outside the cryptoasset ban framed the donor debate peers took up.
Occurred 22 Oct 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
Scottish National Party / John Swinney
Scottish National Party / John Swinney
Swinney told the SNP conference in Aberdeen on 17 October that Scotland is ready for independence, but set no referendum date, bill or Section 30 request. He launched a new campaign instead and extended the £2 bus fare cap to the north east from April 2027.
Liberal Democrats / Ed Davey
Liberal Democrats / Ed Davey
Davey ruled out a national partnership with the Greens on 19 October after their Brighton conference passed a "Zionism is racism" motion, and wrote to two Jewish community bodies. He left untouched the councils the two parties already run together.
Reform UK / Richard Tice
Reform UK / Richard Tice
Tice alleged ITV's reporter used false details to get a press-office job and said ITV had "likely broken the law", telling members not to speak to it until it apologises. Reform also opened investigations into members, with some suspensions, so the party is contesting the broadcaster and disciplining councillors at once.
Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)
Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)
Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.
Michael Marra / Scottish Labour
Michael Marra / Scottish Labour
Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.
Andy Burnham / Labour Party
Andy Burnham / Labour Party
Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.