Robert Jenrick defends £72million donations to Reform UK ‘levelling the playing field’ in battle with Labour

Robert Jenrick has defended two £36million donations to Reform UK from cryptocurrency billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, ruling out the money buying influence over the party.

Speaking to GB News, Reform UK's Treasury spokesman said the donations were a “breakthrough moment” which would allow the party to “level the playing field” with Labour and the Conservatives.

Over the weekend, the two crypto billionaires individually gifted £36million donations, which Mr Jenrick would fund Reform UK’s political operation ahead of the next general election.

He said: “Our 270,000 members have got us to this point, but we did need this now so that we actually have the bandwidth to build the team in the country.

“It means that we can level the playing field with the two old parties who have raised far more than Reform has over the last five years."

He added the party was now “battle ready” for an election, whether it comes “in a couple of months or indeed in two years”.

“They are not buying something here. What they want is a government to come in and fix this country.”

Mr Jenrick added the pair were “so disillusioned with the state of the country” they believed Reform UK was the only option capable of changing it.

He also defended the donations by pointing to the scale of funding received by Labour from trade unions, saying: “In the last comparable five-year parliament, the trade unions gave £68million to the Labour Party.”

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