Nigel Farage has defended accepting a £5 million gift from a billionaire donor, saying it was a “reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years”, as it emerged he purchased a £1.4 million house in cash shortly afterwards.
The leader of Reform was given the money by Christopher Harborne, a cryptocurrency investor based in Thailand, shortly before being elected to parliament.
Farage did not declare the gift upon becoming an MP and is now facing a parliamentary standards investigation. He has insisted it was a “personal” donation to fund his security, meaning it was therefore exempt from the transparency rules imposed on MPs and did not need to be declared.
Asked about the “unusual” size of the gift, Farage told The Sun: “It’s very unusual for someone to give up 27 years of their life to campaign for something. This was given to me on a completely unconditional basis, but frankly it was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years.”
The House of Commons code of conduct states that new MPs “must register all their current financial interests, and any registrable benefits (other than earnings) received in the 12 months before their election within one month of their election”.
The rules say “purely personal gifts or benefits” from family or commercial loans would not normally have to be registered.
Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary standards commissioner, said he had decided to investigate Farage over the donation this week.
If Greenberg decides that he has broken the rules then he will submit a report to the Commons standards committee, which has the power to suspend Farage from the Commons and potentially prompt a “recall” petition in his Clacton-on-Sea constituency in Essex. This would allow voters to trigger a by-election and force Farage to defend his seat again.
Farage has repeatedly insisted that he did not break any rules in accepting the donation from Harborne without declaring it, and said he “is not the least bit concerned” about the investigation.
“I’m utterly confident,” he said. “I’ve got good lawyers, good accountants. I’ve done nothing wrong in any way at all. We’re entirely confident.”
He added that voters in Clacton “don’t care” about the donation, and insisted he “cannot be bought by anybody”.
“They care if you’re a crook, which I’m not and never have been. But the fact that I made a few quid doing things, this doesn’t worry people at all,” he said.
Farage received the £5 million from Harborne, Reform UK’s largest donor, in the early months of 2024. On May 10 that year, he completed the purchase of a £1.42 million house.
Weeks later, Rishi Sunak, prime minister at the time, called the general election, and Farage announced his return to politics as the Reform UK candidate for Clacton in early June.
A spokesman for Reform UK said Farage had already begun the process of purchasing the house before receiving the gift.
“The relevant chronology is straightforward. The offer and purchase process for the property commenced before the gift,” they said. “Mr Farage had already passed proof of funds and the relevant checks before receiving the gift. The purchase was therefore already proceeding independently of it.”
