Labour was accused of trying to ‘punish’ Reform with a retrospective law that could force it to return a record £72million in donations.
Angela Rayner warned on Sunday that although rules to crack down on overseas political funding were still going through Parliament, they will be backdated.
The Communities Secretary said any expats who have given money since the end of March, including those who subsequently moved back to the UK, will be restricted to giving £100,000 a year.
Under the Representation of the People Bill, which will be debated in the Lords today, a ‘minimum residency period’ will also prevent returning Britons from breaching the limit for a calendar year after they come home.
Asked by Sky News whether the law could spell problems for two recent £36million donations to Reform from cryptocurrency billionaires living abroad, Ms Rayner replied: ‘It will be backdated.’
She said the rules would apply to ‘overseas donators’ and those who have ‘recently returned to the UK’, affecting all donations received since March 25, when the Government published a review of foreign influence on politics by former mandarin Philip Rycroft.
She added: ‘Look, we’re saying that if you don’t pay taxes, if you don’t live here, you can’t buy your way into our democracy.’
Asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg if Reform might have to return the sums from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, she said she didn’t know their ‘individual circumstances’. But she added: ‘With the retrospective action, anyone that’s received donations that don’t comply with what was in the Rycroft review, what legislation is currently going through Parliament, would have 60 days to return that money.’
Angela Rayner with Reform UK Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg
Reform UK said it was ‘100 per cent confident both are legal and won’t ever have to be handed back’.
It is thought that Mr Delo, who lived in Hong Kong, and Mr Harborne, who was based in Thailand, both moved back to Britain before the March cut-off date.
Senior Reform figures reacted angrily to Ms Rayner’s comments. Home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the pledge to backdate the terms of the Bill would ‘weaponise Parliament’ to ‘confiscate donations’, adding: ‘Literally changing the rules after the fact to hurt and punish a political opponent. There is no precedent for this in modern British political history. How can anybody operate on these terms?’
Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick wrote: ‘They’re behaving like gangsters. We have to stop their shoddy stitch-up.’
Labour may also seek to impose a cap on donations from any individual. Despite previously backing a limit of £500,000, Prime Minister Andy Burnham is thought to have recently dropped his support following lobbying by the trade unions that bankroll his party.
But Ms Rayner said: ‘We’ve set up a… group that are looking at this.’ Labour MP Stella Creasy, who tabled an amendment to the Bill to call for a donations cap, said: ‘The Government has admitted UK mega-donors are a problem. Donations like this make the public give up hope anyone else can be heard in our politics.
‘But it’s not too late to do something about them and stop it distorting the next election.’
On Sunday, two union barons suggested there should be a cap – but only on donations from individuals, not organisations.
A jubilant Nigel Farage hailed an astonishing double donation totalling £72million on Sunday
Paul Nowak, of the Trades Union Congress, said at its conference in Brighton: ‘Those donations are game-changing, and all of us who care about democracy are going to have to think about how we make sure our democracy isn’t just sold to the highest bidder.’
Sharon Graham, of Unite, told Sky News: ‘For individual donors there must be a cap.’
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said: ‘Labour and their union pals know they can’t win an election fairly, so now they want to rig the system. If the unions have their way, we’ll have a two-tier system that only allows major donations from unions and no one else.’
