Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has been interviewed by the parliamentary standards commissioner over a £5m gift he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Farage told the Sunday Times that Daniel Greenberg, the commissioner, questioned him for 30 minutes at the Palace of Westminster last month.
The inquiry is examining whether Farage should have declared the gift and concerns an alleged failure to register an interest. The investigation resumed after Farage won the Clacton by-election and returned to the Commons. Under parliamentary rules, MPs must register gifts worth more than £300 received in the previous 12 months, unless others could not reasonably consider the gift to be connected to their political activities. Farage maintains that the money was not political and that he has done nothing wrong.
The £5m is separate from much larger sums Harborne has given to Farage’s party. He and Ben Delo have each donated £36m to Reform, bringing their combined contributions to £72m. Those party donations are distinct from the personal gift now under investigation. Harborne had been based in Thailand but was reported in June to have registered to vote in Hampshire, a move that would put him on the UK electoral roll.
Farage has played down the political fallout from the donations. He said he had expected the response to be “far worse”, and claimed the scale of the money raised had earned the party “some grudging respect” from people impressed by the achievement. The standards investigation, however, keeps attention on the relationship between Reform’s leader and one of its largest donors, and on how the personal gift sits alongside the party funding Harborne has provided.
The inquiry turns on a narrow question: whether others could reasonably regard a £5m payment from a major party donor to the party’s leader as linked to his political work. If the commissioner decides the gift should have been registered, Farage could face a finding that he broke the Commons rules on declaring interests. If not, his argument that the money was a private matter will stand. Farage gave his account of the interview to the Sunday Times, and the commissioner has yet to publish any conclusion. The outcome will be watched closely at Westminster, given that Harborne and Delo’s £72m in donations has made them two of Reform’s biggest financial supporters.
