Nigerian-born billionaire Bassim Haidar has given Farage's Reform UK another £192,000

Bassim Haidar gave Nigel Farage's Reform UK a further £192,000 between April and June, according to Electoral Commission data published this week.

The donation takes the telecoms and fintech billionaire's disclosed contributions to the party past £547,000, following £355,000 during 2025, and leaves him roughly halfway through the £1 million he pledged when he defected from the Conservatives.

Haidar was born in Nigeria to Lebanese parents and started his first company at 20. He founded Channel VAS in 2012, renamed it Optasia in 2022, and listed it on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in November at R19 a share, raising R6.5 billion in what was South Africa's largest flotation in years. He remains a non-executive director and holds about 7.5 percent of the company.

His political money has moved with his tax position. Haidar donated more than £700,000 to the Conservatives during Rishi Sunak's premiership before resigning his membership, telling the Telegraph the party had lost its way and was no longer listening to business. He then relocated from Britain to Dubai after Labour abolished the non-dom tax regime, saying the country had become no longer interesting for wealthy investors and that his principal concerns were taxes on global wealth and inheritance.

Reform's tax policy includes offering breaks to wealthy overseas residents.

Haidar has also advised Amnesty International and the World Economic Forum, both institutions Farage has attacked repeatedly.

His donation was a fraction of what Reform collected over the three months. The party received £5.3 million between April and June, more than any other, against £3.5 million for the Conservatives and £2.8 million for Labour.

Ben Delo supplied most of it. The BitMEX co-founder gave £2 million in April and another £2 million in May, on top of two earlier £2 million payments in January and March. Delo received a 30-month probation sentence in the United States in 2022 for failing to maintain adequate anti-money-laundering controls at the cryptocurrency exchange, and Donald Trump pardoned him last year.

The timing matters because of a rule change. Keir Starmer's government imposed a £100,000 cap on donations from overseas electors in March, and Delo said at the time that he would move back to Britain in order to keep giving. He appears to have been unaffected by the cap.

Two other prominent Reform backers gave nothing during the quarter. Christopher Harborne, the Thailand-based crypto investor who provided £12 million in 2025 including a single £9 million donation, made no contribution. Neither did Sasan Ghandehari, who pledged millions in July and said he was moving his tax residency from Switzerland to Britain to make them.

Smaller donations came from the hedge fund manager Johan Christofferson at £100,000, Lucas Bitencourt of the investment firm Arbra at £100,000, Roger Nagioff of JRJ Group at £100,000, Maria Rost at £15,000 and Sotheby's International Realty at £20,000.

Reform's funding has drawn scrutiny for its concentration. DeSmog reported in July that twelve donors linked to a tax haven database accounted for £16.8 million of the £29.2 million the party has received since the 2024 general election. Separate analysis found that roughly 80 percent of the £18.6 million donated during 2025 came from individuals or companies with offshore connections.