Farage’s undisclosed £5m gift

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:07Today, Nigel Farage's£5 million headache.

0:18Nowadays we're told everybody needs a side hustle. And Nigel Farage seems to have quite a few. He already makes almost£100 ,000 through his MP salary. But on top of that, since becoming the member for Clacton, he's been paid£700 ,000 to present his own show on GB News. So I'll be here every night taking on the tough stories of the day, taking on stories that other broadcasters actually don't want to touch. £400 ,000 to advertise gold bullion. So many people are now getting involved and buying UK gold coins. Remember, they're tax-free. And hundreds of thousands more sending personal messages on Cameo, including to convicted criminals.

1:08This message is to pay tribute to Ian Watkins, a good man, a really good guy. He was very much in contact with me, who loved his children and will be sorely, sorely missed by them forever. And now it turns out that in 2024, he took a£5 million gift from elusive, Thai-based, crypto-billionaire Christopher Harbourn, without declaring it to Parliament. At first, Farash said the money was gifted to pay for his personal security. This money is the only way I can look after myself and protect myself for the rest of my life. But then, as he came under pressure, he seemed to change his mind. This was given to me on an unconditional basis, completely unconditional basis, but frankly it was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years.

1:59And he's currently facing a parliamentary inquiry that could see him forced to fight for his seat.

2:08From The Guardian, I'm Annie Kelly. Today in Focus, where Farage got his millions and what he did with them.

2:21Anna Isaac, you are the Guardian City editor. Welcome to Today in Focus. You broke the story about a£5 million gift that Nigel Farage received from a crypto billionaire. What did you discover? there. I found out that Nigel Farage had, just weeks before he decided to run as an MP in the 2024 general election and become leader of reform, that he had accepted a£5 million gift from Christopher Harbourn, who's a cryptocurrency billionaire. You've had some difficult questions about your own funding,£5 million to security. We'll talk about that any other time you like. He was one of the biggest donors to the Brexit party.

2:58He's had a long relationship with Nigel Farage as a donor. He made this gift and he is also Reform UK's biggest single donor, accounting for around two thirds of overall donations to the party. So he's often termed a mega donor. Can you just describe what the rules are about accepting a gift like this? How tightly is this controlled? When MPs become members of parliament, they are given a copy of the code of conduct. These are the rules that every MP has to adhere to. And in that code of conduct, it says that you need to declare benefits and financial interests. So within 28 days of becoming an MP, you need to go back through your books, through your finances for 12 months beforehand, and you're meant to declare any benefits or outside earnings that you had in that period.

3:44The wrinkle here is that reforms say, well, hang on, this was a personal gift. And it's true that some personal gifts don't have to be declared. But within the rules, it does say if there is any doubt that it ought to be recorded. So now that the gifts come to light, we're getting more scrutiny as to that question, should it have been reported? Yeah, and I mean, it's five million pounds. We're talking about a massive amount of money here. It is a life changing sum of money, there's no question. It's also the case that while some MPs have had gifts at different times of money, so for example, Lord Bamford of the JCB Empire, he helped Boris Johnson towards the cost of his wedding to his wife Carrie.

4:25But that was declared, that was within the MPs register of interests. And that would definitely be regarded as personal because it was his wedding. So it is interesting that a different approach has been taken in this instance. Why is it so important that a gift like this would be declared? What kind of scrutiny would that have opened him up to that he managed to avoid by not declaring it in the first place? Speaking in general terms about the British system, it is built on the principle of transparency. That's why they're called declarations. The assumption is not a default. You are doing the wrong thing or anything like that.

4:58The notion is that transparency shows everybody what's happening. They can literally see what interests might influence or be seen to influence a member of parliament. That's the spirit of the rules. When you went to Nigel Farage with the story, he kind of pipped you to the post with the story, didn't he? He admitted to receiving the gift in an interview with The Telegraph after you'd asked for this comment, but before you published your article. What did he say in that article to The Telegraph? And why would he have done that? to use jargon which you know which isn't a great thing to do but it's kind of called jumping the story or trying to spike it which basically means that they're trying to undermine the reporting what happened is we went to reform uk as you would expect as is good practice and we gave them 24 hours to what is a really quite a simple premise which is did you receive five million pounds from this person and we named the person and we asked and we set out a time frame and they said look we need more time you've come to the wrong person they said the director of communications was the wrong person.

5:55So then we said, okay, you can give us more time. The legal team at Reform said they needed more time. We say, okay, we'll give you another 24 hours. But rather than using that 24 hours to sort of work out what's happened and get back to us, they chose to brief the Daily Telegraph on the story. And that meant that they were sort of, from reading it, they looked like they were trying to really frame the gift in the context that they laid out, which was it was a gift for security purposes. And Nigel Farage said, it's supposed to keep me safe and secure for the rest of my life. That's why I was given the money.

6:23How long is the five million going to last, Mr Farage? Hopefully till I'm dead. Right, and then we did see he initially said it was for his security, but the story did seem to change. Farage then said in an interview to The Sun that the money was a reward for his 27 years campaigning on Brexit. It is unusual. My mate lent me a tenner to get a couple of beers. Five million quid, it's a hell of a lot. I know, And it's very unusual for someone to give up 27 years of their life to campaign for something. Right now, there are news reports that show that Farage bought a£1.4 million house shortly after the gift was received.

7:00So what do we know about what that money was used for? We're still trying to piece that together. Ali Fortescue at Sky has had this story, news story, that says, well, he had a£1.4 million house purchase go through cash. And that went through supposedly after this gift was made. The£5 million donation by Christopher Harbourn was first reported in The Guardian early 2024. May 2024, that's when this property was bought. That is obviously raising a lot of questions. ReformU's case position is that the offer was already made and accepted and proof of funds was offered before the gift was made. But it's starting to sort of add to this series of questions, which is why did you need the money?

7:44What was the many for? Have you received any other gifts? And we've put many of those questions to Reform UK and had little or no response.

8:02Anna, let's zoom out a bit. So we recently spoke to The Guardian's investigations correspondent, Tom Burgess, about Christopher Harbourn himself and his bankrolling of Farage. So can you talk a little bit about Harbourn? What do we know about him? Christopher Harbourn is a really interesting, if slightly enigmatic figure. He's got an absolute passion for aviation. He runs aviation related companies. We know that he lives in Thailand and that he has a longstanding relationship with Nigel Farage. And we now know that he accounts for two thirds of donations to Reform UK. He's given about 12 million in total.

8:38That's not including the 5 million gift. He is one of the most significant political donors in modern British history. This is a really important man. He's a billionaire, but one who has been UK born, is a UK political donor. But he's got this really interesting life in Thailand. He goes by a different name there. It's called Chakrit Sukhungrit. He gave an extremely rare interview to The Telegraph. Actually, as part of this effort to get ahead of our story about the five million gift, He said he was really determined to get money into British politics. He said that it was a personal gift for an unconditional gift for Farage's security.

9:17But he also said separately that whatever efforts there might be, I will find a way to make sure that I get money into British politics, kind of whatever happens. bearing in mind there's legislation that's currently passing through Parliament, trying to limit the amount that people who are overseas voters, so they live overseas, but they are allowed to donate to UK parties, but it's still considered in some ways a foreign donation, efforts to limit those amounts of money and also to limit the amount of money that can be given in crypto. Is there a limit at the moment on how much individuals can give to particular political parties in our system?

9:53Or could it be kind of the sky's the limit that you could just keep on giving and giving with no checks or balances at all? So at the moment in the UK, there is no limit on the amount that an individual can give to a political party. But there are overall spending limits. There are spending limits by constituencies, and there are spending limits per year per political party. So it's not a complete free for all. But it's definitely fair to say that there are issues within the system that means one person can be a very dominant donor, so to speak. In that Telegraph article that you mentioned, as you said, really rare to hear him talking to the press.

10:28Did he give any kind of indication about what his personal motivations might be for supporting Farage? I believe that he mentioned the milkshake incident where Nigel Farage was attacked with a milkshake. Oh, no again. Complete failure. Don't worry, don't worry, I was spotted that. With the milkshake incident, on one level it could be seen as slightly comic, On another, at no point are we suggesting that security of MPs or anything like that isn't a really serious issue. We know they face threats. We've seen David Amess and we've seen Joe Cox, both in recent years, MPs who have been killed in the course of their duties as an MP.

11:08So that is a really, really serious issue. What's different, though, is Christopher Harbour's wider motivations for his political donations. nations. In describing his motivation, he said he wants to take Britain back to the early days of Thatcher. He is suggesting that he thought that was a time when we had a much more dynamic economy, we were faring better as a country, and he sees it as a fundamental moral responsibility to try and get us back to that point. But that was separate to his explanation for why he gave the£5 million, which he said was for security reasons. And I think I'm right in saying that, as of yet, no evidence has been provided to the public that the money was actually spent on security.

11:48And more generally, reform does seem to be a bit of a magnet for crypto billionaires. Has there been any questions raised in that sense about Nigel Farage's support of cryptocurrency? They have never accepted that there's a connection between those two things, I should say, for Reform UK. That said, they are hugely interested, supportive of cryptocurrency. We welcome someone who just came across the pond, the most influential Bitcoin and crypto politician flew over here. Please, everybody out of your seats, give this man a round of applause to get this started for us. Nigel, thank you for joining us here at Bitcoin 2025.

12:23Nigel Farage has himself appeared on adverts for a crypto company that is now run by former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. And Reformer very clear that they want to take a very open approach to regulating cryptocurrency in the UK. So there's certainly an interesting alignment of interest there, potentially, even if it isn't something we could say it's a pay for play. And Anna, you mentioned before there are a number of outstanding questions that Nigel Farage has yet to answer about this gift. There's a whole range of questions. And I think this new story from Sky is drawing attention because some of those questions are unanswered.

13:00For example, there's been a lot of scrutiny of the purchase of a property in Clacton on C, which is, of course, Nigel Farage's constituency. His partner bought a property there for£885 ,000. He has said on the record that he didn't give her the money for that. But in a recent interview for Le Monde, a French newspaper, she has said that she didn't pay for all of the property using an inheritance from her family, which suggests it wasn't family money. which is slightly different from what Farajah said which is you know she has a really wealthy family so of course she was able to buy this property so I think it would be really interesting to establish where the money for that purchase came from in light of the five million pound gift what we haven't had answered by reform alongside those questions about the Clacton property are also whether or not any gifts from any donors were made to any other senior figures in reform or MPs for reform we don't know the answer to that question I would suggest the public interest and public debate that's now happening over the 5 million that suggests it would be in the public interest to find out more about that, whether or not there are other gifts at play.

14:04And have reform said anything about that? I presume you've asked them those questions directly. We put those questions to them directly. They chose not to reply to our list of questions. Have they chosen to reply to any questions about whether this is the only gift that Nigel Farage has received from Christopher Harbourn as well? They have touched upon it. They haven't answered it fully. So asked about a time period from 2016 to 2024. They said the five million was the only pound gift, but they haven't answered whether or not there could have been any other gifts from 2024 onwards or before 2016.

14:39And it's really important that we asked about all senior figures and MPs within reform and all donors, not just Christopher Harbourn, all donors. And we don't know the answer to that question.

14:59the revelation about this five million pound gift which came from your story it was published ahead of our recent local elections where as we know reform did really well but last wednesday the parliamentary standards watchdog announced that it would be opening an inquiry into the gift. So could you just outline what the actual process will be? What happens is that people in parties can make requests to the commissioner for parliamentary standards and ask them to look into something. That's what happened here. So the Conservative Party chair, Kevin Hollingrake, asked the parliamentary standards commissioner to look into this gift and whether or not it ought to have been declared.

15:41The parliamentary authorities have replied. They said they are going to look into it. They haven't put a timeline on that, But what they have said is they're looking at it using this frame of MPs need to be conscientious. That's close to the language used, which is that MPs need to be really, really careful in terms of how they approach declarations and how they use that. So I think it's really testing whether or not that bar of being really, really careful and thoughtful has been met. But there's also the possibility of a second probe by the Electoral Commission, which has different powers to Parliament and a different remit.

16:14It looks more broadly at party funding rather than individual MPs. We're waiting here to see whether or not they will also open their own inquiry. I mean, this sounds pretty serious, but what could the consequences be of both of those processes for Nigel Farage if he is found to be in breach of this code of conduct? Because I know the approach that the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner are taking, I can speak better to that one, which is there's some really serious measures they can take. They have quite a big menu, but the most serious one, which you've seen reports addressing, is that if he's found to have made a really, really big mistake, he could face a 10-day suspension from Parliament.

16:51And the significance of that is that a suspension of that long could be sufficient to trigger a by-election in his constituency. So that would be a very big deal if that would happen. But how likely is that to happen? I mean, that this inquiry will actually lead to something more than a slap on the wrist or a cause for no concern. Are there any other precedents for something like this taking place? I'm not aware of one that specifically speaks to a gift of this size or specifically to a gift like this. What might be important is if it is found that he ought to have declared it, it won't be the first time that he has had to correct the register, so to speak.

17:34He said it was an oversight, but he didn't declare some other donations previously in the instance of this gift, if it's found that he should have declared it, then there certainly will be some form of reprimand. But you're absolutely right that it could run the whole range of responses through to yes, effectively a slap on the wrist and I'm very sorry, and I'll put it on the register, right through to something, you know, gravely serious like a by-election. Even if he was confident in winning that by-election, it would be really problematic for him, wouldn't it, to have to go through that very public process of fighting for a seat again?

18:04Contesting a seat is a gruelling, really demanding process. It would also potentially be a distraction from other plans. Reform UK are already looking ahead to next year when there will be more local elections and that's where they want to concentrate their attention and resources and so it would certainly be a distraction from everything else that he is trying to achieve. And this electoral commission, would that be any different in terms of looking into how this gift was spent or used or is that again more of a kind of bureaucratic process? Part of the point of the electoral commission it has a lot of responsibilities obviously towards UK elections but that's a really broad brief.

18:44One of them is to monitor money that is spent on campaigning in politics in the UK and so that will look at a bit at the question was this money used for security was it used for any party political purposes and so that's what that probe could potentially look at if they decide to open one.

19:08Coming up, why it might not be a great look taking five million pounds from a crypto king.

19:23One of Nigel Farage's selling points is that people feel like, you know, he's not like other politicians. He's always talking about not being part of the political elite. But here he is accepting millions and millions of pounds from a crypto billionaire. But how have reform supporters reacted to your reporting. Do you think it's made any kind of dent in their approval of him? I've spoken to quite a few people who are involved with reform one way or another. That's from sort of a few grassroots members right through to a very senior member of reform. And they said that they did think it would have been, you know, that Nigel's a rock star, they've said.

20:04They do think it might have been better if he had declared it. Some of the grassroots activists I spoke to, it's a mix of views. So some completely brush it off and they say, well, of course, you need security, nothing to see here. And some who feel that it is just so much money, they wish he'd set up a different arrangement and perhaps where he sort of accepted someone else providing him with security services that they handled it rather than him being given a bit of cash. It's definitely mixed views among the members of reform I've spoken to and certainly some sort of head scratching within some of the upper echelons of the party.

20:39Has Nigel Farage said anything about how it's going down with his supporters or even his constituents in Clacton? He has suggested that the view of his constituents in Clacton in an interview that he did with The Sun, with Harry Cole, who's its editor-at-large, he suggested the view of people in Clacton will be, you know, good on me. See what people in Clacton say. Good luck, you mate. Yeah? They don't care. No one cares. 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, it doesn't worry people at all. It's interesting, isn't it, the way that Nigel Farage is able to weather these kind of storms compared to other politicians.

21:20I mean, Keir Starmer facing intense criticism at the beginning of his premiership for being seen to take freebies, Taylor Swift concerts, his wife taking designer clothing, multiple pairs of glasses, costing thousands. He ended up paying back some of that. Does it seem to you that Farage is facing the same levels of scrutiny? I think that scrutiny is starting to build. I think because he has not yet held the highest office, he hasn't received yet the same level of scrutiny. But I think it's starting to build because it's very clear that as a political electoral force, reform is really, really significant in this country right now.

21:59I think one of the reasons that Labour came under so much pressure over some of those gifts as a newly formed government is that there is a sense amongst the public that they want to know what money you get, why you're getting it and what it's for. And this kind of reporting must be really arduous and tough and you must face quite a bit of backlash when you publish your stories. Do you see this as being really firmly in the public interest? I absolutely do. I have a long track record of looking into those lines between personal finances and political finances and the importance of making sure the public is in the know when there could be any perceived or actual conflict of interest.

22:45I really see this as another story that walks that line that says, you know, yes, these are potentially someone's personal finances, but they are pertinent to examining whether or not there could be a conflict of interest here. I've done it for people on all kinds of parts of the political spectrum. It may feel to reform or mispronounce that it's unfair, but I think the critical thing here is that this is something that's important for anyone that's looking to take on those top jobs. They have to accept that there is a greater public interest in all of their finances than there would be if they were a private citizen.