Unions move to back political cash reforms after Farage’s £72M haul

BRIGHTON, England — Britain’s trade unions are preparing to back a suite of changes to political finance rules after two cryptocurrency tycoons donated a record £72 million to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Unions had been lobbying the governing Labour Party — to which they gave around £5 million in 2025 — against introducing an annual cap on U.K.-based individual donors, on the basis that it could curb their donations too. But in the wake of Reform’s unprecedented haul, unions are now planning to shift that position and back the idea of further reforms to both spending and donations, two senior union officials not authorized to speak publicly told POLITICO.