Crypto investor based in Thailand donates further £3m to Reform
Christopher Harborne has donated another £3m to Reform UK on top of his record £9m last summer.Nigel Farage’s party, which has been topping the polls for more than a year, brought in £5.5m in the last quarter of 2025 – outstripping all the other parties.It also included a £200,000 donation from JC Bamford Excavators – traditionally a Conservative donor – which gave the same sum to the Tories that quarter.The Harborne donations will bolster Reform UK’s war chest before the May elections, in which Farage will be hoping to make progress in Wales and across England where council seats are being contested.
Harborne, a Thailand-based aviation and cryptocurrency investor, previously gave £10m to the Brexit party to fund its 2019 election campaign and £1m to the office of Boris Johnson after he resigned.In contrast, the Conservatives brought in £4m in donations, the Liberal Democrats more than £2m and Labour almost £2m.The Green party, which won the byelection in Gorton and Denton in February, received just £290,000 in donations, showing them outperforming their financial position, while Your Party, with Jeremy Corbyn as its parliamentary lead, got £670,000.The huge scale of Harborne’s donations, as well as the £20m given by Frank Hester to the Tories before the 2024 election, have led to renewed calls from MPs and campaigners for a cap on political donations.There is also pressure from several Labour select committee chairs for a ban on donations in cryptocurrency.
As well as the Harborne donations, Reform brought in six-figure sums from biotech entrepreneur David Grainger, a firm owned by double-glazing businessman Gary Dutton, Lebanese-Irish tech billionaire Bassim Haidar, Monaco-based metals broker Ashley Levett, and Isabel Goldsmith, a sibling of Tory peer Zac Goldsmith.The party also accepted a £11,500 donation from Frederick Hesketh, the son of former Tory peer Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, who later joined Ukip, and a cousin of Farage’s unofficial aide George Cottrell.Publishing the figures, Jackie Killeen, the director of regulation at the Electoral Commission, said: “Almost £65m in donations was accepted by political parties during 2025.The UK political finance system has high levels of transparency, and we know that voters are interested in where parties get their money from.This publication is an important part of delivering this information for voters.
“However, we know there are parts of the system that need strengthening, and we have been calling for changes to the law for some time,The UK government’s proposed reforms to the political finance regime in the representation of the people bill could strengthen donation controls and help ensure voters can have confidence in the political finance system,We will continue to work with the government so that any changes are evidence based and workable in practice,”
‘That person has gone’: Lewis Hamilton ditches despair for feelgood Ferrari reboot
In the dying embers of the 2025 Formula One season there was a period when Lewis Hamilton, one of the greatest drivers of all time, seemed cut from an almost unrecognisable cloth. The confidence, humour and calm assurance in his own abilities had been stripped away, replaced by an almost despairing bewilderment.It was so alien to his usual character that many considered it a wonder that he was managing to drag himself on to see the year out. In the buildup to this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Hamilton was typically forthright in acknowledging it had been something of a psychological break.“I lost sight for a second of who I was,” he said
India hold off brave England and brilliant Bethell to reach T20 World Cup final
England, India and the Wankhede Stadium ground staff conjured a ludicrous, blockbuster semi-final, but for the English in the end it was a bust, a night when records fell, and they eventually went with them.Only three times in their history have they scored more than the 246 they got on Thursday, but still it was not enough. Never before have so many runs been scored in a T20 World Cup match, nor as many sixes (34), nor more sixes in an innings than India’s 19. Neither England nor India had ever conceded as many runs in any T20 anywhere as they did here. It was dizzying stuff, ending in appropriate style with Jofra Archer scoring sixes off the last three legal deliveries to trim the winning margin to just seven runs
Seven countries to boycott Paralympics ceremony over flag-flying Russians
Seven countries and the British government will boycott the opening ceremony of the Winter Paralympics in protest at the inclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes.The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine would not be sending athletes or officials to the ceremony on Friday night.Other countries – including Great Britain – have said they will not be sending athletic representation due to the imminent start of competition. The IPC estimates fewer than 60% of the competing countries will send a full delegation to the 2,000-year-old Arena di Verona.The UK government confirmed there would be no representatives attending the event and reiterated its opposition to Russian athletes competing under their own flag
Jennifer Shahade: ‘There’s a long and embedded history of abuse in chess’
The former US women’s champion changed her life and her sport when she made allegations against a grandmaster. Now she’s turned her hand to writing and pokerOn 15 February 2023, Jennifer Shahade took a deep breath and wrote “Time’s up” above a long message about allegations of sexual abuse in the cloistered world of professional chess. Shahade knew her words would have an impact but she didn’t expect the social media post to go viral and change her life.A two-time US women’s chess champion, Shahade chose her words carefully as she made serious allegations against Alejandro Ramirez, a then 34-year-old grandmaster from Costa Rica who was based in America and coached the St Louis University chess team: “Currently there are multiple investigations [into] Alejandro Ramirez and sexual misconduct, including a series of alleged incidents involving a minor. I was assaulted by him twice, nine and 10 years ago
From a 19-time world champ to Monster Mike: US athletes to watch at the 2026 Winter Paralympics
The first-time Paralympian only turned 19 at the start of March, but she has been in the news for her skiing prowess since she was a second-grader. She’s also going to Italy on a roll, having reached the podium in two World Cup downhill races in early February. In the 2024-25 season, she had two World Cup podium finishes in giant slalom, and she took bronze in giant slalom and fifth in slalom at the world championships, where the other three events were canceled. Though she was born without her lower right arm, she was still an honorable mention All-State softball player in Colorado.In 2018, Adicoff graduated from Bowdoin, where he competed alongside able-bodied athletes on the cross-country ski team, and won silver at the Paralympics in the same year
Emma Raducanu hopes to rediscover ‘natural’ style that has been ‘coached out of me’
Emma Raducanu says she is determined to wrest back control of her style of play, with the British No 1 eager not to be bound by the diktats of a single coach.“I want to come back to my natural way of playing,” she told BBC Sport. “That takes time to relearn because that’s something that has been coached out of me a little bit.“I have had a lot of people telling me what to do, how to play, and it hasn’t necessarily fit. I don’t necessarily want to have one coach in the role because anyone I bring in is straight away going to be scrutinised – even if it’s a trial
Nissan ‘says Sunderland plant could close’ if UK excluded from Made in Europe rules
Slower UK interest rate cuts likely as some mortgage providers hike rates; oil and gas prices rising again – as it happened
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Harry Brook reiterates support for Brendon McCullum after England’s World Cup exit
England fall just short against India in epic T20 World Cup semi-final – as it happened