Parliament amended the Representation of the People Bill on 25 March 2026, introducing a retrospective moratorium on Cryptocurrency donations to political parties, a £100,000 annual cap on donations from overseas electors, and shell company restrictions that cap foreign-parent companies at £500 for parties and £50 for candidates. The retrospective element is the constitutional novelty: the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 has not previously applied prohibitions backwards to donations already received.
Reform UK is the only major party confirmed to have received crypto donations. The party acknowledged "a couple" of such contributions to the Electoral Commission but disclosed no amounts. The quantum matters enormously. Christopher Harborne's £12 million in conventional donations across Q3 and Q4 2025 is entirely unaffected; the crypto question is separate. But if the undisclosed receipts are material, the 30-day return window after Royal Assent becomes a compliance crisis arriving simultaneously with the campaign's final push. No date for Royal Assent has been confirmed, meaning the window's precise end-point is itself unknown.
Former Permanent Secretary Philip Rycroft was commissioned in December 2025 to review foreign financial influence in UK politics. His recommendations became law in three months, with retrospective application, during a regulated campaign period. Commission to legislation took three months; the Electoral Commission typically takes months to consult on draft statutory guidance before any significant change to PPERA. The speed here reflects the political urgency the Harborne donation scale created, as the five-poll average that put Reform UK on 25 per cent nationally made its funding arrangements a target.
For every other party, the overseas elector cap and shell company restrictions create new compliance obligations regardless of political colour. But the asymmetry is plain. Reform UK enters the final four weeks of a three-nation campaign simultaneously managing a legal deadline, a candidate attrition problem in Wales, and IFS manifesto demolitions in Scotland.
