What to know : Nigel Farage is under scrutiny for an undisclosed £5 million ($6.7 million) gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne before his 2024 election, which Farage claims paid for security. The Conservative and Labour parties argued Farage broke Commons rules by not declaring the £5M, but Reform UK said it was an exempt, personal, unconditional gift. The controversy comes as the UK government imposed a moratorium on crypto donations to political parties, citing the risk of foreign influence.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage received about £5 million (around $6.7 million) from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne before announcing his run for the Clacton seat in 2024, The Guardian reported Wednesday.
The Conservatives have referred him to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, while Labour has also accused him of breaking House of Commons rules.
Farage confirmed the gift in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, saying it was meant to keep him "safe and secure for the rest of my life" after a milkshake was thrown at him in 2019 and a firebomb attack on his home last year.
Harborne, a Thailand-based businessman with a 12% stake in stablecoin issuer Tether, made the payment in 2024. Farage announced his Clacton candidacy in early June last year and won the seat in July.
A Reform UK spokesman called the payment a "personal unconditional gift" given before Farage was elected and said his decision to stand as an MP was "entirely unrelated."
The spokesman, the report added, said "We are confident everything has been declared in accordance with the rules."
The Commons code of conduct requires new MPs to register benefits received in the 12 months before their election, and says any benefit should be registered if there is doubt. Reform says the gift falls under the exemption for purely personal gifts.
The country’s main opposition Conservative Party wrote to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg asking him to examine whether any of the funds were used to support political activity rather than security. Labour chair Anna Turley said Farage "appears to have broken the rules again."
U.K. crypto donations
Harborne gave Reform £9 million, then worth around $12 million, late last year in the largest single donation to a U.K. political party from a living person on record.
Earlier this month, BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo said in an op-ed he had given Reform £4 million ($5.1 million) since the start of the year.
The U.K. government imposed an immediate moratorium on crypto donations to political parties in March, citing the Rycroft review's warning that digital assets could be used to channel foreign money into U.K. politics.
The ban covers donations of any size and will be written into the Representation of the People Bill, with criminal penalties for non-compliance.
That same month, Farage invested £215,000 ($286,000) in Stack BTC, a London-listed bitcoin treasury company chaired by former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, taking a 6.31% stake through his investment vehicle Thorn In The Side.
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