Reform UK believes the £72m in donations it has received from two cryptocurrency billionaires were “entirely in line with the law”, the party’s economic spokesman has said.
Robert Jenrick told the BBC he did not expect that the party will have to return any of the money from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, who are both British and have spent time living overseas.
The government is seeking to change the law on donations to UK political parties from British expats, including a £100,000 cap backdated to 25 March.
“These two donations are entirely in line with the law as it is and, as far as we know, the law as it’s going to be in the future,” Jenrick said.
As well as limiting how much British citizens can donate to political parties from overseas, the government has proposed a minimum residency period in which the £100,000 cap would still apply for those who move back to the UK.
This would be in place for the remainder of the calendar year and the following calendar year after the person returns.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the rule changes would apply retrospectively and anyone not complying with them would have “to return that money”.
Rayner added she was not commenting specifically on Delo and Harborne as she does not “understand” their “circumstances”.
Answering questions about the donations following Rayner’s remarks, Jenrick said: “It might be that Angela Rayner or the government keep trying to change the law to make it even harder for people to donate to Reform, nothing would surprise me.
“But, as it stands, we believe these are entirely in line with the law.”
BBC News has been told that both Delo and Harborne have returned to the UK. Delo is understood to have been back in the country since last year.
Jenrick said Delo had returned to the UK “in part so that he can comply with the changes to the law”.
In a statement after the programme, a Reform UK spokesman said: “We are 100% confident both [donations] are legal and won’t ever have to handed back.”
One person familiar with the government’s proposed changes said the issue of whether Delo and Harborne are affected would likely come down to how ministers choose to define UK residency.
They said one way would be to adopt the same definition used in tax laws, but stressed how complex the rules around residency are.