Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Britain's Reform UK accused the country's Labour government Monday of attempting to retroactively amend campaign finance law to force the party to hand back a record $97.1 million donation from two crypto billionaires.

Richard Tice, Reform UK's deputy leader, told the BBC the move underscored how threatened Labour was by his party "if they completely change the way that we understand things are done in the United Kingdom and that they retrospectively introduce legislation in order to significantly disadvantage another political party that's merely trying to get on a level playing field."

"[The government is] trying to literally change the rules to suit their own narrative any day of the week at the drop of a hat and that's not the fair way, it's not the British way," said Tice.

Tice's comments came after the party announced over the weekend that it had received two donations of $48.5 million from British crypto entrepreneurs Ben Delo, formerly of Hong Kong, and Christopher Harborne, a former Thailand resident, as an elections bill capping donations from overseas Britons at $135,000 a year is working its way through Parliament.

Reform UK argued the donations conform to existing electoral laws but the government said it will back-date the cap to March, in line with the recommendations of an independent review into foreign financial influence and interference in British politics published March 25.

The bill additionally requires British donors complete a minimum residency period of a full calendar year (January through December) before they can exceed the $135,000 cap.

Tice told Sky News that Delo relocated to the United Kingdom before the cut-off date and that Reform UK had also been advised that both men's donations complied with both existing and the proposed new rules.

The developments came as the House of Lords, the upper chamber, was due to begin scrutiny of the Representation of the People Bill later Monday, after it passed its first reading in the House of Commons Sept. 3.

On Wednesday, London's Metropolitan Police announced it had launched an investigation into Reform UK after a sting operation by undercover reporters posing as representatives of wealthy foreign donors in which the party's then-director of policy James Orr and Chief of Staff Dan Jukes allegedly suggested a way around an electoral law ban on donations from overseas.

One of the sums discussed was in excess of $674,000.

Reform UK say it is the victim of entrapment and denies any wrongdoing.