Defence Secretary Wes Streeting took £37,500 from a think tank weeks after Sam Bankman-Fried gave £500,000 to its founder
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting accepted £37,500 from a think tank one month after crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried handed its founder £500,000. Bankman-Fried is now serving 25 years in an American prison for stealing billions of dollars from his customers.
The donations from Labour for the Long Term were first reported by The Telegraph’s Tony Diver. Electoral Commission records confirm two payments: £30,000 on 3 August 2022 and £7,500 on 3 August 2023.
Ten days from launch to a fraudster’s gift
Labour for the Long Term registered its website on 20 June 2022. Ten days later, Bankman-Fried gave the think tank’s founder, David Lawrence, a personal gift of around £500,000, as reported by crypto news outlet Protos and confirmed in FTX court documents. One month after that, the think tank made its first donation to Streeting.
The £30,000 paid for a policy adviser, Dr Thomas Gardiner, who worked for Streeting two days a week at £2,500 a month. Gardiner stayed on in the Department of Health after Labour won power in July 2024.
Bankman-Fried was charged in December 2022 with seven counts of fraud, accused of stealing about $8 billion, roughly £6.3 billion, from customers of his FTX exchange. Streeting accepted the final £7,500 eight months after the charges. Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 and sentenced in March 2024.
The founder’s account does not match the records
Lawrence says he gave Bankman-Fried’s money to UK charities and never used it to fund the think tank. He says another donor, a City investor, funded the Streeting donation.
But Electoral Commission records show that donor only began giving to Labour for the Long Term in February 2023. That is seven months after the first payment to Streeting. Lawrence declined to explain the gap.
‘I unreservedly condemn Bankman-Fried’s actions and had no knowledge or suspicion of any criminal activity until it was reported in the news’, Lawrence said.
Lawrence was selected as Labour’s candidate in Basingstoke in December 2022. He announced he was standing down in November 2023, one month after Bankman-Fried’s court records were published, citing personal reasons including the birth of his child.
The loophole that lets foreign money into British politics
It is illegal for MPs and parties to accept donations over £500 from foreign citizens. But unincorporated associations such as Labour for the Long Term can take money from abroad without naming the source. They file no accounts and need no formal structure. The Electoral Commission, the publicly funded elections regulator, has repeatedly called for the loophole to be closed.
There is no suggestion that Streeting knew where the money came from. His spokesman said his team checked a list of the think tank’s donors before accepting. Lawrence was on the list. Bankman-Fried was not. ‘Wes has had no contact with this individual and he was never mentioned in any discussions with LLT’, the spokesman said.
‘The Defence Secretary has serious questions to answer. He must immediately come clean about the source of his donations.’ — Alex Burghart
Shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart said: ‘The Defence Secretary has serious questions to answer. He must immediately come clean about the source of his donations and any possible connections with the disgraced crook Sam Bankman-Fried.’
Labour called Reform ’the party of crypto billionaires’
Labour ran a Facebook attack ad this year asking whether Reform UK was ’the party of the people’ or ’the party of crypto billionaires’. Nigel Farage has faced questions over a £5 million gift from Christopher Harborne, a British crypto investor living in Thailand. Farage denies any wrongdoing.
Streeting was appointed Defence Secretary on 20 July 2026 in Andy Burnham’s government. Both Bankman-Fried and Lawrence support effective altruism, a movement that encourages the wealthy to make money and channel it into charities and political projects. Labour for the Long Term gave evidence to Parliament in 2023 calling for international agreements on AI and nuclear weapons.
The Electoral Commission has opened no investigation. All the donations were declared under the rules. Labour says it will tighten donation laws, including a £100,000 cap on gifts from British citizens living abroad.
