Is it possible to buy XMR with fiat in the UK or will I need a VPN?

Try asking in !monero@monero.town (or !monero@lemmy.cafe !monero@lemmy.world)

You best bet if you prefer going through exchanges is get a crypto that’s popular and cheap to tx (BCH, LTC..) then swap it on https://trocador.app/ or any exchange that accepts both cryptos

Else, you can go peer to peer. There are things like haveno etc… but it’s a bit of a pain

Trading XMR is officially banned in the UK irc. You might need a VPN if services prevent you from swapping, but trocador should shield your IP so it should work without a VPN

http://simpleswap.io/