Farage Defends £5m Gift from Donor as Brexit Reward, Faces Inquiry

Nigel Farage said £5 million he received from a billionaire Reform UK donor was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit.

The Reform leader told The Sun he cannot be bought by anybody and the money from Christopher Harborne was given to him on a completely unconditional basis.

Farage has previously said he was under no obligation to declare the gift because he received it before he was elected as Clacton MP, it was for his personal security and was not political in any sense at all.

Reform's opponents have said he should have declared it in the MPs' register of interests when he was elected to Parliament in 2024.

The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner has launched an inquiry into whether Farage broke Commons rules by accepting the gift and not declaring it.

Asked if he was worried about what people thought of the gift given its scale, Farage replied: "It's very unusual for someone to give up 27 years of their life to campaign for something. And 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."

On whether it had an impact on his decision to return to public life, Farage replied "no" before also saying "I cannot be bought by anybody".

Harborne, a British cryptocurrency investor who lives in Thailand, told The Telegraph in April that he was not expecting anything in return apart from ensuring Farage's safety when referring to the gift.

Harborne also said he gave the money to Farage because of his great admiration for the decades of work he had done to achieve Brexit.

The 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.

The rules also say both the possible motive of the giver and the use to which the gift is to be put should be considered, adding if there is any doubt, the benefit should be registered.

MPs who are judged to have broken the code of conduct face a range of punishments from a written or oral apology to suspension from the House or even expulsion, in the most serious cases.

Harborne last year gave a single donation of £9 million to Reform UK, the biggest to a UK political party by a living person.

In total, the businessman gave £12 million to Reform in 2025 and has donated to the Conservatives in the past.