A billionaire cryptocurrency entrepreneur is relocating from Hong Kong to Britain with the explicit aim of funnelling millions of pounds into Reform UK .
Ben Delo, co-founder of the BitMEX trading platform, donated £4 million to Reform earlier this year before the Government introduced a £100,000 cap on political donations from British citizens living overseas.
In an article in today’s Daily telegraph he has announced that now intends to return to the UK to circumvent that restriction and, in his words, help build a “war chest” for Nigel Farage ahead of the 2029 general election.
Confidential support
His announcement came weeks after a Guardian / Hope not Hate investigation revealed the extent to which he is already providing confidential infrastructure aupport for the far right.
Just a five-minute walk from the Houses of Parliament, overlooking Westminster Abbey, Delo funds a political hub known as The Sanctuary, a neo-Gothic building whose second floor he has furnished in the style of a Pall Mall gentlemen’s club.
Discreet operations
Those given access to The Sanctuary can use its event space, office facilities and podcast studios free of charge. Among the beneficiaries is Rupert Lowe, leader of Restore Britain.
The Sanctuary takes care to keep its operations discreet, with Delo’s name absent from the building’s signage and users asked not to refer to the facility on social media.
James Orr, the Cambridge academic with ties to Viktor Orbán-funded groups who advises Nigel Farage, has received funding from Delo who is reported to support more than 50 projects.
Delo, 42, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at 11, claims mainstream political language is uniquely alienating to people on the autism spectrum and praises Farage for his supposed plain-speaking.
Existential threat
He has described political correctness as “an existential threat to western civilisation” and “a totalising ideology that’s actually strangling our societies”.
He accuses Keir Starmer of introducing the donations cap specifically to hobble Reform, and has called on other wealthy expats to repatriate themselves to maximise their giving. Till now Reform has been heavily reliant on Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based billionaire who has given £12 million to the party.
Delo’s stated intention is to plug the gap left by restrictions on Harborne’s future donations.
But Delo’s own record is not without controversy. In 2022 he pleaded guilty in the United States to failing to implement an anti-money laundering programme at BitMEX, before being pardoned by Donald Trump last year.
He now describes his conviction as a non-crime and a blip from running a startup.
Reform is hoping for projected historic gains in the 7 May local elections, with some forecasts that it might win up to 2,260 council seats.
Campaign spending is capped during regulated election periods, but there are no equivalent limits on staff costs or spending outside those windows, a loophole that unlimited private funding is well placed to exploit.
