Politics
How record-breaking Reform UK donor Christopher Harborne made his millions
Who is the man behind the record-breaking multi-million pound donation to Reform UK?
Christopher Harborne gave Nigel Farage‘s party £9m in August, according to new data published by the Electoral Commission. The contribution ranks as the largest ever single donation from a living person in UK political history.
Born in Britain, Mr Harborne is a businessman who owns several companies, employing more than 600 people worldwide, according to a court filing dated last year.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage
Yet he’s not resident in the UK, and is also a citizen of Thailand, where he is known as Chakrit Sakunkrit, and has lived and worked there for 20 years.
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Nonetheless, he has a long history of political donations to British parties.
Electoral Commission data shows he has previously donated to the Conservatives, gifting them £10,000 in May 2001, and continuing to support them with close to £2m in donations by October 2022.
Christopher Harborne, furthest right, joins Boris Johnson, left, during his visit to Lviv, Ukraine. Pic: City of Lviv
But there was been some overlap with his backing of Reform, which first received a donation from him in April 2019, for £200,000.
He’s also donated to Mr Farage personally, giving £27,616.76 in January so the Reform leader could attend the second inauguration of Donald Trump.
He paid another £32,836 for the Reform and a member of staff to fly to the US following the attempted assassination of Trump in July last year.
And he gave one of the biggest donations ever made to an individual UK politician when he backed Boris Johnson to the tune of £1m in 2022.
Christopher Harborne sits second left from Boris Johnson, centre, during his visit to Lviv, Ukraine. Pic: City of Lviv
He served as an advisor to Mr Johnson during the former PM’s trip to Kyiv in 2023.
His latest cash injection to Reform UK breaks the previous record for a donation from a living person, which was £8m from supermarket tycoon Lord David Sainsbury to the Liberal Democrats in 2019.
The largest ever single donation to a UK political party was from his cousin, Lord John Sainsbury, who left more than £10.2m to the Conservatives in 2022 in his will.
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Electoral Commission records show Mr Harborne has made at least £24.5m in UK political donations since 2001.
But where is his money from?
Several of his businesses come under the banner of AML Global, including one registered in the UK, which has a London address listed with Companies House.
AML Global is described in a court filing as an international jet fuel broker that works with oil companies, and which has been awarded $39m (£29m) worth of contracts by the US Department of Defense.
Harborne was also an early investor in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
On his LinkedIn page, the businessman further describes himself as chair of Sherriff Global Group.
His profile shows he was educated at INSEAD business school, Cambridge University, and Westminster School.
Figures from the Electoral Commission released this week show Reform UK reported the most donations of any party in the third quarter of 2025, a total of £10,526,846.
By contrast, the Conservatives reported £7,038,861 in the same period, Labour £2,564,786, and the Liberal Democrats £2,174,712.