Nigel Farage has confirmed that Reform UK would “gladly” accept further donations from Christopher Harborne, the crypto billionaire whose existing gifts to the party include the £5m personal payment to Farage now under formal investigation by the Commons standards watchdog.
Asked directly whether Reform would accept further donations from Harborne now that he has registered to vote in Britain, Farage replied without hesitation: “Of course you. Gladly. Of course. Of course we would. And we’re very pleased that he’s re-registered back in the UK.”
Christopher Harborne, the mystery billionaire bankrolling Reform UK, gave the party £9m last August, the single largest donation in British political history from a living individual, and a further £3m this year, on top of the £5m gifted personally to Farage. He has now registered to vote in Hampshire as the government prepares a £100,000 annual cap on donations from overseas-based donors, a move widely read as an attempt to keep the door open for further giving once that cap takes effect.
The investigation
The full timeline of the Farage-Harborne relationship shows the £5m gift was made weeks before Farage stood in the 2024 general election. He did not declare it to parliamentary authorities, prompting the Commons standards watchdog to open a formal investigation into whether he breached disclosure rules.
If the probe finds a serious breach, Farage could be suspended from the Commons. A suspension of 10 days or more would trigger a recall petition under the Recall of MPs Act, potentially forcing him to fight his Clacton seat again. Farage previously bought a £1.4m property in cash weeks after receiving the gift, and weeks before announcing his candidacy.
Farage has given inconsistent explanations for the money. He has said it was for private security for the rest of his life. He has also said it was a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years. Last week he told the BBC “no one cares” about the gift, and when asked by BBC Breakfast how much he had spent, replied: “It’s none of your business.”
On Monday he was equally unrepentant about the original non-disclosure. “I’m absolutely convinced I’ve done nothing wrong in any way at all,” he said, adding that he did not regret failing to declare the donation at the time. Asked whether he had given an interview about the possibility of becoming an MP before accepting the gift, he gave a tangled answer: “Yeah. And after that I said, after that I said, ‘I will not stand in this election.’ And I was pretty clear when a snap election was called that I wasn’t going to do it. I did change my mind subsequently.”
The byelection context
The comments came during a visit to support Reform’s candidate in the North Northumberland Police and Crime Commissioner byelection. Asked about Reform’s disappointing Makerfield result, Farage said: “In Makerfield, we got 16,000 votes. I’d hoped for a few more, but we were never going to win that by-election looking back on it because there was a tidal wave of support for getting rid of Keir Starmer.” He noted the irony that Reform had won seats in the same area weeks earlier campaigning on “vote Reform, get Starmer out,” only for the same sentiment to translate into a vote for Burnham instead.
He was also asked about competition from Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, which has fielded a candidate, Colin Sutton, in the same byelection. Farage avoided attacking the rival party directly: “I have no pitch to those that wish to vote for Restore. All I would say to them is I don’t hold anything for that party, but Colin Sutton is the most famous living detective in Britain.” He extended the appeal to Labour, Conservative and Green voters, urging them to “vote on ability.”
What it signals
The willingness to confirm, without hesitation, that Reform would accept more money from the same donor at the centre of an active parliamentary standards investigation is a notable show of confidence. It suggests the party views the £5m controversy as a manageable media story rather than an existential threat, and that the financial relationship with Harborne is considered too valuable to publicly distance from, even amid active scrutiny.
Whether that confidence is well placed depends on the outcome of the ongoing standards investigation. For now, Farage’s message is unambiguous: the money is welcome, the investigation notwithstanding.
Leave a Reply