Nigel Farage has the £5m gift he received from Christopher Harborne was a “reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years.”
It’s the story that just won’t go away for Farage – that he did not declare a £5m sum sent to him by Thailand-based crypto billionaire Harborne shortly before he decided to stand as an MP at the 2024 general election.
The Reform leader hasn’t been particularly keen to answer questions on the topic, and is now facing a formal investigation from the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over whether he broke Commons rules by not declaring the sum.
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The Electoral Commission are also weighing up whether to investigate the £5m payment.
Farage has been adamant that he did not have to declare the money, which he has previously said was given to him by Harborne so he could cover the cost of personal security.
But now, in an interview with the Sun’s Harry Cole, Farage seems to have changed his tune, saying the money was actually about Brexit.
After Cole asked him about the money, Farage started off by saying the information “shouldn’t even be in the public domain.”
After dismissing the investigation into the sum, the Clacton MP said: “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.”
Farage added that he “cannot be bought by anybody” when he was asked if the money had any impact on his U-turn decision to stand as an MP at the general election.
Sharing the clip on X, Times Radio’s Kate McCann pointed out that Farage’s words represented a change of line from him and Reform.
She wrote: “Nigel Farage claims the details of a £5m donation ‘shouldn’t even be public’ and states it was an unconditional ‘reward for campaigning for Brexit’. Previously Reform UK have said the donation was to cover Mr Farage’s security costs for life.”
The same observation was made by the Guardian’s Pippa Crerar.
Also on Thursday, Sky News revealed that Farage had purchased a £1.4m property shortly after receiving the money from Harborne.
A Reform UK spokesperson told the outlet: “The offer and process for purchase of this property commenced before the gift”.