The Full Story Behind Nigel Farage's £5 Million 'Gift'
Reform UK's leader is under investigation over the money he didn't declare from a billionaire crypto businessman living in Thailand. So how did it happen? How bad is it? And what happens next?
Five million pounds is not an amount of money most people could ever imagine receiving. Yet that’s exactly how much billionaire businessman Christopher Harborne gave to Nigel Farage before he entered parliament in 2024.
Farage has always maintained it was a personal gift, and the £5mn was not declared after he became an MP — only coming to light after reports in the media. The parliamentary standards commissioner is now investigating whether it should have been declared and if Farage has broken any rules.
The Reform UK leader has faced repeated questions about exactly what the money was for — questions that in recent weeks he has become increasingly frustrated by.
What we know
Harborne gave Farage £5mn in early 2024, before the general election. The payment did not become public until the Guardian revealed its existence in April this year.
When first asked about the money, Farage said it had been given to help cover the cost of his personal security.
But when Harborne later spoke to the Telegraph, he offered a broader explanation. He said he had made the gift not just for security but also because of his “great admiration for the decades of work [Farage] had done to achieve Brexit.”
More recently, Farage has described the payment simply as an unconditional personal gift.
Asked about it during a series of interviews, he dismissed questions about the money as “a purely private matter” and told LBC: “With all due respect, what’s it got to do with you?
“It’s an unconditional gift. I can spend it on Ferraris if I want. That’d be entirely up to me ... I can do what I want with it. I can put it on the horses.”
When challenged over previously describing the money as being for his personal security before Harborne said it was intended as recognition for Brexit, Farage denied there were conflicting explanations.
“Look, there are not two stories. One is, I was given the money unconditionally.
“I believe it was a reward for giving up a quarter of a century of my life, giving up a huge income in the City of London, putting up with lots of abuse. I believe that was the motive, whether it was or not. That is that side of the equation. The other side of the equation is what I intend to do with that. I’ve made that perfectly clear.”
Who is Christopher Harborne?
Christopher Harborne is a British-Thai cryptocurrency investor and Reform UK’s biggest financial backer.
He is a billionaire with an estimated net worth of more than £18 billion.
Harborne has also given more than £1.5 million to the Conservative Party — with this last donation to the Tories coming in 2022 before he fully switched allegiances to back Farage.
He gave Farage the £5 million gift before the 2024 general election and, on top of that, has donated £15 million to Reform UK over the past 12 months.
Harborne returned to the headlines this week after registering to vote in the UK, following the government’s plans to limit large political donations from overseas voters to £100,000 a year.
He has previously criticised the proposed cap, telling the Times: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”, adding that his first reaction was: “Fine, in that case I’ll give even more money.”
Harborne has also previously donated £1mn to a company set up by former prime minister, Boris Johnson after he left Downing Street. More recently, an investigation by the Nerve claimed Johnson used Harborne’s private jet for personal travel in 2023 without declaring it.
What do the rules say?