Matthew Stephenson

Exclusive: Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice lobbied the Bank of England over cryptocurrency rules after the party received a £9m donation from Christopher Harborne - a billionaire investor in the industry, The i Paper can reveal. Letters released by the Bank, seen by The i Paper, show Tice urged senior regulators to take a more permissive approach to digital currencies, arguing that Britain risked losing financial business to the United States. The timing of the intervention, so soon after the £9m donation, raises questions about the relationship between Reform’s financial backers and its position on cryptocurrency regulation. Harborne is reported to own a stake of about 12 per cent in Tether, the company behind USDT, a digital token designed to remain worth one US dollar. Tokens of this kind, known as stablecoins, are usually backed by traditional currencies and are intended to hold a steady value. The billionaire gave Reform £9m in August 2025, the largest political donation by a living individual at the time. The donation was not publicly disclosed until December. Eight weeks after the donation, on 27 November, Tice wrote to Sam Woods, chief executive of the Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority, warning that Britain was falling behind other countries in developing stablecoins. “It will not have escaped your attention that in the meantime the U.S. has already passed the GENIUS Act and that US dollar backed stablecoin issuance is now over $250bn,” he wrote. He added: “With London the largest foreign exchange market in the world it is surprising that we are not leading global thinking in this area.” Tice then pointed to Reform’s political prospects, telling the regulator: “You will note that based on current opinion polls Reform UK is set to form the next government.’” “We cannot accept the current situation,” he added. Story 👇 inews.co.uk/news/politics/re…