Seven UK MPs Demand Crypto Donation Ban to Safeguard £12M Political Funds
Seven senior Labour bigwigs in the UK are calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to squash the idea of political donations in cryptocurrency
Quick overview
- Seven senior Labour figures are urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to ban political donations in cryptocurrency due to concerns over transparency and foreign influence.
- Liam Byrne emphasized the need for clear tracking of political financing, arguing that crypto donations complicate this process.
- Reform UK, the first party to accept crypto donations, faces challenges as Labour pushes for stricter regulations ahead of upcoming elections.
- Labour members and anti-corruption groups advocate for a ban on crypto donations to maintain electoral integrity and align with efforts against foreign interference.
Seven senior Labour bigwigs in the UK are calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to squash the idea of political donations in cryptocurrency. They reckon they can lose control of this because of its opacity and the risk of foreign outfits trying to sneak in and influence UK politics. They’ve sent a letter to the government pointing out that the ban should definitely be part of an elections bill due later this month.
Liam Byrne, the bloke who chairs the Business and Trade Committee, made it clear that political financing needs to be totally transparent, you’ve got to be able to see who’s behind the money and track it. He reckons crypto donations make it tough to keep tabs on the cash – you can’t tell who the money came from, you can make loads of tiny donations that don’t get recorded, and it makes UK politics open to foreign interference. That’s what the Electoral Commission is saying anyway.
Reform UK’s Crypto Plans are at Risk
This lot could throw a spanner in the works for Reform UK, the first party in Britain to actively seek cryptocurrency contributions. Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, has been bigging up cryptocurrency and has included a Bitcoin reserve strategy in their policy. The party even got £9 million in cash donations from a bloke called Christopher Harborne, one of the first investors in crypto. That’s a record for the biggest single donation from a living person in the UK.
UK Backbenchers Committee Calls for Outright Ban on #Crypto Political Donations
A committee of seven senior Labour MPs has urged the UK government to impose a total ban on #crypto donations to political committee wrote to Prime Minister Kier Starmer to #use the upcoming… pic.twitter.com/GFz2g90sUW
— CryptOpus (@ImCryptOpus) January 12, 2026
- Reform UK actually makes you have to reveal who made the crypto donation.
- Part of their policy was to get young tech-savvy types more interested in politics.
- Local elections next May might be a test for crypto in politics.
The government reckons that banning crypto donations would be a real nuisance to implement in the elections bill – the same bill that will lower the voting age to 16.
Democracy and Transparency – a Genuine Concern
Pat McFadden from Labour is really keen on the importance of knowing who made the donations and whether they were properly registered. Groups like the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition are piling on, saying this is all part of maintaining the integrity of the election. They reckon that allowing crypto donations confuses things – it doesn’t line up with the government’s efforts to sort out foreign interference, illicit finance, and all that other malarkey.
The Labour lot are saying that loads of other countries have taken a similar stance, so the UK should get on and sort it out. “We are not being against innovation because of this,” says Byrne “it’s about getting rules in place to make democracy actually work.”
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