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I mean, if people try and do something retrospectively, then maybe.\u201dTo recap: In the past 48 hours, Reform UK has received a staggering sum of \u00a372m from two crypto billionaires, the largest single donations in British political history. \n Christopher Harborne\u2019s \u00a336m donation, which he announced in the Telegraph newspaper yesterday, matches that given by another cryptocurrency investor Ben Delo on Friday.Key events14m agoRayner: 'Hundreds of people in black, with balaclavas, is intimidatory and crosses the line'1h agoGeorge Osborne calls for UK to rejoin EU customs union and boost trade1h agoOnly slim chance target of building 1.5m homes in England will be met, minister says2h ago\u00a372m Reform injection equivalent to entire year of political donations3h agoJenrick says there's 'economic opportunity' for UK from crypto4h agoJenrick says he is 'very confident' donations are 'perfectly legal'5h agoRayner says parliament is looking into new laws on donation caps that could apply retrospectively5h agoJenrick says donations 'breakthrough moment' for party5h agoJenrick faces questions over record Reform donationsRayner: 'Hundreds of people in black, with balaclavas, is intimidatory and crosses the line'Rayner was also asked earlier on the BBC about the surge in anti-migrant protests, including those yesterday in Portsmouth, Tamworth and Glasgow where face coverings were banned.Police brought in the restriction after the September 5-6 weekend where hundreds of masked, black-clad men blocked entry to the Port of Dover and obstructed roads in Portsmouth in menacing scenes.\u201cWe\u2019ve been really clear that there is a right to protest in this country, but it doesn\u2019t give you a right to intimidate and act unlawfully\u2026 We\u2019ve seen a surge of divisiveness and that has made communities feel more vulnerable and that is not acceptable,\u201d Rayner said.She also described scenes earlier this week at a Portsmouth hotel as \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d. On Tuesday night, roughly 40 masked men had gathered outside the hotel, shouting slogans and banging on doors in the mistaken belief that a Pakistani youth cricket team staying there were newly arrived asylum seekers.\u201cThat\u2019s completely unacceptable. That\u2019s intimidatory behaviour,\u201d said Rayner. \n \u201cAnd I would say, hundreds of people walking down the streets, all dressed in black, with black balaclavas on, is intimidatory and crosses the line.\u201dAt yesterday\u2019s protests in Portsmouth police tried to keep apart the two groups of protesters, with marchers chanting \u201cstop the boats\u201d facing off with demonstrators holding \u201cstop the far right\u201d and \u201cstand up to racism\u201d signs.Protesters from a group known as South Coast Patriots take part in a march against immigration in Portsmouth against a counter-protest by Stand Up to Racism, in Portsmouth, Britain, September 12, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes Photograph: Isabel Infantes/ReutersAs warnings surrounding the threats of AI continue to make headlines this weekend my colleague Dan Milmo has written a less pessimistic piece on the topic in his feature from the AI bootcamps aimed at addressing UK youth unemployment.The UK government is trying to address two of the greatest challenges facing the national economy: AI and youth unemployment and a pilot project in Preston comes with apprenticeship offer for Neets at end of three-week course.You can read more on it here: George Osborne calls for UK to rejoin EU customs union and boost tradeElsewhere today the former chancellor George Osborne said Britain\u2019s economy had \u201cfallen off a cliff\u201d since Brexit and that rejoining the European Union\u2019s customs union would be the fastest route to recovery.You can read more on that hereOnly slim chance target of building 1.5m homes in England will be met, minister saysWhile talking to the media this morning Angela Rayner also admitted that there was only a slim chance government will meet target of building 1.5m home.Labour\u2019s manifesto pledge to build 1.5m houses by the next election was a \u201cstretch target\u201d, the communities secretary added, but said it was not being ditched and she was \u201cdefinitely not giving up\u201d.My colleague Jessica Elgot has her reported in detail here:Angela Rayner said she was pleased AI companies are \u201ctalking about the threats as well as the opportunities\u201d after Elon Musk and Sam Altman backed a call for the industry to slow down development, PA reports.It comes after Anthropic boss Dario Amodei said he was concerned that since this summer, AI has been \u201cadvancing drastically faster\u201d.Given the rate of development, Mr Amodei is worried that within six to 12 months, AI could be capable of leading a swarm that could take over the entire internet.The entrepreneur, whose company is behind the AI assistant Claude, shared a three-part plan for building the technology at a \u201cbalanced rate\u201d.Rayner told Sky News: \u201cI\u2019m pleased that these companies are also talking about the threats as well as the opportunities that AI presents to us, and we have to work with our international partners, which is what we\u2019re doing.\u201dDescribing the UK as \u201cworld leaders\u201d in AI security, the communities and housing secretary added: \u201cWe have put robust systems in place here in the UK, like the AI Security Institute, to make sure we\u2019re building resilience so that we get the benefit as well as really understand and protect against any risk.\u201dConservative MP Tom Tugendhat told Sky News: \u201cThe speed of change is also extraordinary, and this is where actually government can enable a conversation, but we simply do not have the speed to keep up with the advances that are happening.\u201cAnd the reality is, we can\u2019t pass laws against mathematics.\u201cThese are mathematical equations that are being developed in greater and greater speed, and we need to maintain that ability to protect ourselves.\u201d\u00a372m Reform injection equivalent to entire year of political donationsLet\u2019s put this \u00a372m weekend windfall for Reform in context \u2013 not only the largest single donations to a UK political party ever, but also the equivalent essentially of an entire year of political donations in the lead-up to a general election.A total of \u00a379m was donated to UK political parties in 2023, according to the Electoral Commission. A further \u00a384m was given in 2024, the election year. \n This is just what\u2019s been publicly logged. Reform is also facing allegations it has tried to hide foreign donations. It denies any wrongdoing.\n The data also shows how much has been donated to parties since the 2024 vote (not reflecting Reform\u2019s latest endowments.)July 2024- June 2026 donations:\n - Tories: \u00a337m\n - Reform: \u00a335m\n - Labour: \u00a321m\n - Lib Dems: 17m\n - Greens: \u00a31.9mWill also point out here that across the Sunday politics shows this morning, neither Labour nor the Tories ruled out accepting such huge sums from crypto-billionaires in the future.Nigel Farage says that donations just go to putting Reform on a \u201cmore level playing field\u201d with the more established parties.Angela Rayner was asked on the BBC, at least three times, whether Labour on principle would have accepted tens of millions of pounds from the industry if they had been offered it.She declined to give a direct answer, saying instead that the party has \u201cvery robust rules and a vetting process for where we accept donations from. And we have refused donations in the past.\u201d\n Tom Tugendhat meanwhile highlighted \u201cproblematic\u201d areas of the crypto industry, but also didn\u2019t answer the BBC\u2019s question directly.\n \u201cWell, look, we\u2019d accept money from reputable sources\u201d he said, before turning to speculation on whether Reform had done their adequate checks.Jenrick says there's 'economic opportunity' for UK from cryptoReform has been describing these crypto billionaire donations \u2013 again the largest single gift to a British political party \u2013 as being from patriotic businessmen who \u201csimply support our agenda\u201d.Pressed by Laura Kuennsberg on the BBC: \u201cAnd part of your agenda is being very pro cryptocurrency, which is their business?\u201d\n Jenrick replies, \u201cUm, not really\u201d, saying first that he wants \u201cproper\u201d regulation of the digital currency which is a bit of a \u201cWild West\u201d, and then advancing to the idea of gains for the UK in adopting crypto.\n Throughout this morning, he\u2019s been referring to himself as Reform Shadow Chancellor.\u201cIs there an economic opportunity for the UK from crypto? Yes, and I want, as Reform Shadow Chancellor of UK, to seize that so we can compete with Dubai and the United States.\u201d\u201cBut that\u2019s not what we\u2019re doing here with these donations.\u201d\n Reform has said if it wins government, it would raise a law to boost adoption of crypto, including throuhg cutting tax on digital assets. They would also create a bitcoin reserve fund at the Bank of England.Just wanted to highlight this statement too from Jenrick, insisting to both the BBC and Sky this morning that wealthy donors wouldn\u2019t get formal favours, if Reform were to come into power.\n He said \u201cthere are all these people in the House of Lords who are Tory donors. 24 out of the last 25 Tory Party treasurers sit in the House of Lords.\u201d\n \u201cReform is different. We are not going to give peerages, or knighthoods, to people who go around giving us donations,\u201d he says.\n A reminder that Jenrick was a Tory MP for 12 years (and the former shadow justice secretary) before defecting to Reform in January of this year.The foreign donor cap is currently set at \u00a3100,000. There are no restrictions on how much citizens living in the UK can give parties. But if a Brit returning to the UK wishes to give more, the new law states that they need to be living in the country for a full calendar year before they can do so.The issue with the laws perhaps applying retrospectively (i.e. from March) is that this could rule out these \u00a336m a-piece donations from Harborne and Delo, as both of these crypto-billionaires have been living outside of the UK, and Reform may have to return the money.Jenrick says in the case of Harborne, he won\u2019t go into his personal circumstances but, \u201ceven if that were the case, the donation that he\u2019s made would still be a legal one in compliance with the law. So we see no reason why you\u2019d have to return these.\u201dOver on Sky, Conservative Tom Tugendhat was asked if the Tories were \u201crattled\u201d by the money going into Reform.He says he \u201cwelcomes people supporting political activity\u201d in a democracy- at this point, Sky\u2019s Rachel Johnson cuts in \u2013 \u201ceven crypto billionaires who live in Thailand?\u201d (referring to Harborne).Tugendhat then switches to his second point \u2013 the persistent murkiness over where Reform\u2019s funds come from.He raises the issue of due diligence, noting it\u2019s a legal requirement for each party to rigorously check the sources of their donations and highlights that Reform has faced allegations this past week after a Channel 4 undercover investigation appeared to show Farage\u2019s senior aides attempting to circumvent the rules to accept an otherwise illegal injection of foreign funding. \n (Reform denies the allegations but Farage\u2019s chief of staff and head of policy have stepped down and Labour has asked police to investigate possible offences. The Electoral Commission is also considering the allegations.)\n Tugendhat goes on to argue that regardless of these donations and huge sums, \u201cBritish people can\u2019t be bought\u201d and it\u2019s an \u201cillusion\u201d to buy influence in public office.\n He then also notes that these tens of millions have come from the crypto industry \u2013 noting that it\u2019s the currency commonly used for laundering and to get around sanctions on foreign regimes like Russia and Iran.Jenrick says he is 'very confident' donations are 'perfectly legal'Earlier, Jenrick on Sky defended the donations saying he was \u201cvery confident\u201d they\u2019re \u201cperfectly legal\u201d.When pressed on whether Reform would return the donations if they were found to violate new law: \u201cWho knows? I mean, if people try and do something retrospectively, then maybe.\u201dTo recap: In the past 48 hours, Reform UK has received a staggering sum of \u00a372m from two crypto billionaires, the largest single donations in British political history. \n Christopher Harborne\u2019s \u00a336m donation, which he announced in the Telegraph newspaper yesterday, matches that given by another cryptocurrency investor Ben Delo on Friday.Would the new law capping foreign donations then make these latest Reform cheques illegal, if they apply restrospectively? Given both donors resided overseas, presumably at the time of donation.\n Rayner says she won\u2019t be drawn on the individual donors in the Reform situation, and she doesn\u2019t know their circumstances- i.e. where they were living at the time of donation- but she lays out what the law would entail, that it would apply from March.Harborne is still based in Thailand, while Delo is reported to have moved back to the UK since April.\u201cWith the retrospective action, anyone that\u2019s received donations that doesn\u2019t comply with \u2026 what is in legislation is currently going through parliament, would have 60 days to return that money,\u201d says Rayner.\n \u201dThat is not for those individuals, let me be really clear. I do not understand those individual circumstances, but that their retrospective action will apply from the 25th of March.\u201dRayner says parliament is looking into new laws on donation caps that could apply retrospectivelyMeanwhile on the BBC, the government\u2019s Angela Rayner says the huge sums show it\u2019s all about \u201cwho is funding politics and if there are few individuals who fund power to power\u2026 in a democracy that is a concern.\u201d\n Parliament is currently looking at new laws to cap foreign donations \u2013 Rayner again stresses Labour\u2019s line that this restriction when it comes in should apply restrospectively.Jenrick says donations 'breakthrough moment' for partySky\u2019s just broadcast an interview with Jenrick who describes the bonanza donations as a \u201cbreakthrough moment\u201d for Reform \u201cfrom two patriotic businessmen\u201d.(A reminder that Harborne has lived outside of the UK for years and is based in Thailand, and Delo until recently, was living in Hong Kong and was convicted of violating the US Bank Secrecy Act before being pardoned by Trump last year).\n Jenrick says the 2 x \u00a336m donations \u201cenables us to be battle ready for the election and to prepare for government.\u201d\n He denies that the huge cheques mean that Reform is \u201cin hoc\u201d with the crypto billionaires, and says it wouldn\u2019t buy them peerage or any other formal favours.Jenrick faces questions over record Reform donationsGood morning and welcome to the Guardian\u2019s politics live blog in what is a fairly tumultuous period in electoral financing. \n To recap: In the past 48 hours, Reform UK has received a staggering sum of \u00a372m from two crypto billionaires, the largest single donations in British political history. \n Christopher Harborne\u2019s \u00a336m donation, which he announced in the Telegraph newspaper yesterday, matches that given by another cryptocurrency investor Ben Delo on Friday.The huge injection into Reform\u2019s coffers obviously help fund the anti-immigration party\u2019s operations leading into the next general election, to be held by 2029. But it has also further muddied the reputation around the party\u2019s finances and who it says it serves. Reform has pledged more crypto-friendly policies i.e. greater adoption of the unregulated currency across the UK if the party were to come into power.Reform UK economics spokesperson Robert Jenrick arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London on Sunday. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PAReform\u2019s economics spokesman Robert Jenrick is on Sky and the BBC this morning to address questions over the massive donations and allegations it has sought to circumvent electoral law to receive foreign donations.\n There are also calls now across the political spectrum for a cap on donations from big-moneyed donors in the UK, a restriction that currently only applies to foreign donors." ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789293984.109387", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-13T13:34:00.547890+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/sep/13/reform-uk-nigel-farage-robert-jenrick-christopher-harborne-ben-delo-donations-funding-anthropic-ai-uk-politics-latest-news-updates" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-13T13:34:00.539974+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "Reform\u2019s Robert Jenrick \u2018very confident\u2019 \u00a372m donations are \u2018perfectly legal\u2019 \u2013 UK politics live | Politics | The Guardian", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789293984.109387", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-13T13:34:00.449496+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--backup-converted", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--warc-file=/data/archive/1789293984.109387/warc/1789306429", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/sep/13/reform-uk-nigel-farage-robert-jenrick-christopher-harborne-ben-delo-donations-funding-anthropic-ai-uk-politics-latest-news-updates" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-09-13T13:34:00.440261+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/sep/13/reform-uk-nigel-farage-robert-jenrick-christopher-harborne-ben-delo-donations-funding-anthropic-ai-uk-politics-latest-news-updates.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789293984.109387", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-13T13:33:49.587398+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "Reform\u2019s Robert Jenrick \u2018very confident\u2019 \u00a372m donations are \u2018perfectly legal\u2019 \u2013 UK politics live | Politics | The Guardian", "warc": null, "wget": "www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/sep/13/reform-uk-nigel-farage-robert-jenrick-christopher-harborne-ben-delo-donations-funding-anthropic-ai-uk-politics-latest-news-updates.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1789293984.109387", "newest_archive_date": "2026-09-13T13:34:04.006395+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-09-13T13:33:48.736143+00:00", "path": "/politics/live/2026/sep/13/reform-uk-nigel-farage-robert-jenrick-christopher-harborne-ben-delo-donations-funding-anthropic-ai-uk-politics-latest-news-updates", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "6dc43e96-a794-4be2-8310-44e11e2738b2", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1789293984-import.txt" ], "tags": ",war-wiki,pool,world_news", "tags_str": "war-wiki,pool,world_news", "timestamp": "1789293984.109387", "title": "Reform\u2019s Robert Jenrick \u2018very confident\u2019 \u00a372m donations are \u2018perfectly legal\u2019 \u2013 UK politics live | Politics | The Guardian", "updated": "2026-09-13T13:33:48.735896+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-09-13 13:33", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/sep/13/reform-uk-nigel-farage-robert-jenrick-christopher-harborne-ben-delo-donations-funding-anthropic-ai-uk-politics-latest-news-updates" }