People are realising how certain people and parties get different treatment in the media following the news of Nigel Farage’s £5m gift.
This week, the Guardian revealed that Farage had been given £5m from by British cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne, who is based in Thailand and has since donated millions to Reform UK.
The money was handed to Farage in early 2024, just weeks before he announced his U-turn decision to stand as an MP in that year’s general election.
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Farage did not declare the gift and has since been referred to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner by the Conservative Party.
Aside from the fact Farage did not declare the sum, some have wondered how the media coverage of this story would have been different if it had been someone from the Labour Party who had accepted £5m without declaring it.
Others have compared the coverage to the media furore over gifts and freebies received by Keir Starmer and senior Labour figures in the early months of this government.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Farage said he had been given the money to pay for personal protection “so that I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life”.
His team have also denied he broke Commons rules by not declaring the sum, claiming there was no requirement to declare the money because it was a personal gift.
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”.
Labour Party chair Anna Turley said Farage “appears to have broken the rules again by failing to declare this cash from his billionaire backer”.
Meanwhile, Conservative party chair Kevin Hollinrake said that as a new MP, he should have declared the gift, adding: “Why does Reform think the rules don’t apply to them?
“This stinks and Reform should come clean now.”
He announced in a post on X that the Tories had referred Farage to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.
Some have raised questions about the timing of the financial gift as well and whether this may have played in a part in not just Farage’s decision to stand as an MP but also Reform’s subsequent pro-crypto stance.