Reform plans crypto union to funnel foreign donations and dodge Labour's ban on overseas donors

From the Newshound archive · first published 20 September 2026.

Arron Banks, one of Nigel Farage's most senior aides, revealed on Saturday night that Reform UK plans to bypass any Labour crackdown on foreign donations by creating a trade union for crypto and IT workers that would legally channel the funds. The move follows Andy Burnham's government pledging new residency requirements after Reform received an unprecedented £72 million from two cryptocurrency billionaires, Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, both previously based overseas. Banks said the Allied Computer & Crypto Workers Union would be UK-certified, sidestepping the proposed new laws entirely. A separate 'Red Wave' plan would flood existing unions with Reform supporters to engineer a reverse takeover of the organisations.

Banks boasted the union would 'hoist Labour by its own petard' by turning its own trade union laws against it.

Reform's donor crisis deepened today as one major supporter moved to sell an £18 million luxury flat amid fears of a Labour tax raid.

The crypto union plan echoes Banks's 2018 'blue wave' that flooded the Conservative Party with ex-UKIP members to push it toward hard Brexit.