Unions are urging Andy Burnham to take action after Reform received £72 million in donations within 48 hours, while defending their own financial support for Labour.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said donations from cryptocurrency billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo highlighted the growing power of the “super-rich” in British politics.
His comments came after Angela Rayner warned that planned restrictions on overseas political donations would be applied retrospectively, despite the legislation still making its way through Parliament.
The Communities Secretary said expatriates who have donated money since the end of March—including those who have since returned to the UK—would be limited to contributions of £100,000 a year.
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice, however, accused Labour of “hyperventilating hypocrisy” this morning. His party has maintained it is “100 per cent confident both are legal and won’t ever have to be handed back”.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson also dismissed calls for tighter controls as “absolutely pathetic”, arguing that Labour had been “troughing” on trade union money for years.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak, pictured speaking at the union organisation’s annual conference in Brighton, said donations from cryptocurrency billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo exposed the influence of the “super-rich”
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice accused Labour of “hyperventilating hypocrisy” during the dispute
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of his address to the TUC conference in Brighton, Mr Nowak was asked whether he supported retrospectively blocking the donations.
“I’m not quite sure what the detail of the law would look like, but I am quite sure about this,” he replied.
“Nobody can be comfortable about the prospect of the super-rich effectively buying and selling British politics…
“This is the Americafication of our politics and I don’t say that in a good way.”
Mr Nowak dismissed the idea that union funding was comparable to the Reform donations.
‘Everybody knows what we’re after because we are open democratic organisations that represent millions of working people up and down this country,’ he said.
‘I am concerned about the impact of these huge donations. As far as I’m concerned trade union money is the cleanest most transparent money in British politics.’
However, Labour former Cabinet minister Lord Blunkett said he believed union donations should be covered by a limit.
‘Obviously, we’ve been talking about overseas donations. I think there should be a cap on donations internally as well for domestic reasons,’ he told Times Radio.
‘And I think we should reach an agreement that respects that both business, trade unions, and wealthy individuals, as well as the poor devils who sustain the Labour Party over the many years I’ve been in it, which is giving £20 here and £50 there.
‘All of us deserve a system that protects our freedom, protects our democracy and allows us to argue the case without distorting that case.’
Mr Johnson waded in to condemn Labour’s hypocrisy on funding.
‘Just because some people want to support one party very generously, Labour kicks up a huge fuss and says they’re going to cap donations,’ he told GB News.
‘They’ve got huge amounts of money – troughing it from the trade unions. It’s absolutely ridiculous Labour are trying to cap donations.
‘I think the next election is going to be fought on the shape of the British economy and on British society and the government that has the most credible [plan] and I think it’s the Conservatives…
‘Kemi Badenoch, I think, has the most credible plan for cutting the grotesque expansion in welfare spending, in spending more on defence, as some of your correspondents have just been saying.
‘That is where the argument is going to be.’
Under the Representation of the People Bill, which will be debated in the Lords today, a ‘minimum residency period’ could prevent expats returning to Britain from breaching the limit for a calendar year after they come home.
Asked in interviews yesterday whether the law could spell problems for two recent £36million donations to Reform from cryptocurrency billionaires living abroad, Ms Rayner replied: ‘It will be backdated.’
She said the rules would apply to ‘overseas donators’ and those who have ‘recently returned to the UK’, affecting all donations received since March 25, when the Government published a review of foreign influence on politics by former mandarin Philip Rycroft.
She added: ‘Look, we’re saying that if you don’t pay taxes, if you don’t live here, you can’t buy your way into our democracy.’
Asked if Reform might have to return the sums, she said she didn’t know their ‘individual circumstances’. But she added: ‘With the retrospective action, anyone that’s received donations that don’t comply with what was in the Rycroft review, what legislation is currently going through Parliament, would have 60 days to return that money.’
Mr Tice told ITV’s Good Morning Britain today: ‘These donations are made in accordance with the rules and the regulations, and you’ve now got a hyperventilating hypocrisy from the socialists ruining this country, who are trying to change the rules retrospectively, which is it’s not the fair way, it’s not the British way, and I think most people will say ”does that just mean that Labour are terrified of the progress of Reform and they’re trying to create an unlevel playing field?”
‘What these two donations are trying to do is to actually level the playing field. We’re relatively new, we haven’t had the vast donations over the last five to 10 years that Labour and the Tories have had, so we need to employ campaign managers up and down the country, we need to employ brilliant policy people, the best minds, in order to ensure that we have the best policies.’
The intervention came after Angela Rayner warned yesterday that although rules to crack down on overseas political funding are still going through Parliament, they will be backdated
He said the donors would have ‘absolutely zero’ influence on Reform’s policy platform.
‘They haven’t made any asks, they haven’t made demands and nothing would be given in return, we’ve made that crystal clear,’ he said.
It is thought that Mr Delo, who lived in Hong Kong, and Mr Harborne, who was based in Thailand, both moved back to Britain before the March cut-off date.
