Nigel Farage has threatened to restrict trade union funding to Labour if Reform UK wins power, escalating a growing confrontation over the role of wealthy donors and organised labour in British politics.
The Reform leader issued the warning as ministers consider changes to political donation rules that could affect two £36mn contributions made to his party by cryptocurrency billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.
Farage said any attempt by Labour to restrict Reform’s access to wealthy donors could be met with curbs on the millions of pounds unions provide to Labour.
Writing in The Telegraph, he said: “If anyone is giving money to do political bidding, it’s the trade unions.
“So I would just warn the Labour Party here and now: If you try and ban our donors, we in government would certainly ban funding from the trade unions.
“I don’t want to go down that route. But it is something we would be prepared to do.”
The intervention comes as ministers seek to introduce a £100,000 annual cap on political donations from British citizens living overseas.
The proposed restriction, contained in the Representation of the People Bill being debated in the House of Lords, would be backdated to March 25 2026.
Delo and Harborne, both British nationals, had lived overseas until recently. Ministers are considering an “enhanced residency test” to establish whether their donations would be permitted under the proposed rules, although it remains unclear whether either donor had returned to Britain before the March 25 cut-off.
A senior Reform UK insider has told GB News that “more” cash injections are on the way, suggesting the dispute could intensify if further large donations are announced.
The battle over political funding has already spilled into the trade union movement. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner launched an attack on Reform’s wealthy backers at the Trade Union Congress on Monday.
She said: “Nigel Farage’s sugar daddies made their money in crypto, but there’s nothing cryptic about their motives.
Now, when these Reform donors say they want nothing, they mean it: no workers’ rights, no renters’ rights, no social protections, no safety net, no regulation, nothing to stand in their way.
Rayner added: “How dare they try to compare money from a couple of crypto billionaires to union members’ subscriptions – the most highly regulated political funding we can have.
It couldn’t be more different from a couple of offshore billionaires trying to buy our democracy.
Labour’s 11 affiliated trade unions are meanwhile seeking to draw a distinction between donations made by individual wealthy donors and funds collected through members’ subscriptions.
Union leaders are expected to issue a joint declaration opposing attempts to treat the two forms of political funding in the same way.
Labour has received almost £43mn from trade unions since Sir Keir Starmer became party leader in 2020, making organised labour one of the party’s most important sources of financial support.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak told delegates on Monday: “Let no one tell you there is any similarity – any similarity – between care workers chipping in a few quid a year through their union and a party bought and paid for by billionaires.
“We need a proper conversation about how we clean up our politics that doesn’t push workers to the margins – but does stop the super-rich corrupting our politics.”
Farage has argued that unions provide Labour with financial backing in the expectation of securing favourable policies, while accusing previous Conservative donors of making contributions in pursuit of “knighthoods and peerages.
He has insisted that Reform donors would receive neither peerages nor government contracts in return for their financial support if the party wins the next general election.
The dispute points to a broader political fight over whether Britain’s existing rules adequately distinguish between grassroots political funding and large private donations — and whether attempts to restrict one side of the funding system could ultimately provoke retaliation against the other.
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